


Happiness Isn't Available To Everyone

by JJWay



Category: Marvel 616
Genre: Abusive Parents, Abusive Relationships, Alternate Universe - Mob, Alternate Universe - Police, Drug Addiction, Drugs, Heroin, M/M, Minor Character Death, Nightmares, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sexual Content, Strippers & Strip Clubs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2018-06-04 12:13:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 30
Words: 37,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6657289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JJWay/pseuds/JJWay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life had always been difficult for Loki and Victor, and things weren't getting better, there wasn't a bright light at the end of their tunnel. But they were okay with that.</p><p>*This story deals with a lot of dark themes with not a lot of sympathy, so don't read if you're easily offended.*</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been living in London for the past month, and instead of seeing the sites I've been writing this! Clearly there's something their putting in the water down there. Sometimes you have to let out the dark thoughts in your head.  
> I'm not easily offended or shocked, so I'm not sure if this story is bad or not, but as I said in the description, if you think you won't like it than don't read it. My favourite author is Irvine Welsh, and I'm obsessed with Trainspotting and Skag Boys at the moment, so this story takes a bit from that, especially the drug addiction.
> 
> This is part of a 101 challenge, which you can find on deviant art by RainHowlz, http://ajvondoom.deviantart.com/art/101-Theme-Challenge-188267411

Victor shot awake ready to attack, his hand grabbed out to the closest thing to him. He breathed harshly, and as his body shook his t-shirt coated in sweat unstuck itself from his back. It took a few moments for his vision to focus and hearing to come back to him. When Victor has his senses back he heard his boyfriend gasping and realised his hand was around his throat. Victor quickly let go and Loki collapsed to the floor beside the bed. “I told you not to wake me up,” Victor said with a raspy voice as he got out of bed, walking past Loki without looking to see if he was okay. He’d been screaming in his sleep again.

“Our neighbours were complaining, Victor.” Loki said once he had his breath back, and picked himself off the floor.

“Let them complain,” Victor grumbled staring into the cracked mirror of the dark bathroom. The window was boarded up, and the room had never had a light bulb in it the whole time the two had been living here. They’d gotten used to moving around in the dark, they neither had the concern or money to fix it. “We’re the first to hear it when they’re snorting crack or popping pills.” They lived in a three story maisonette, with one flat above them, and one below. The ones above were drugs addicts, the ones below shot porn, and themselves in the middle did both. Heroin addiction was an expensive game, and Victor had no qualms about letting the guys downstairs use his boyfriend’s body.

 

Victor waited as the water spurted out of the tap, and used his hand to scoop the liquid into his mouth. He quickly wiped his lips with the back of his hand and made his way to the joint kitchen and living room where Loki was already cooking up the first hit of the day. Victor sat opposite Loki at the coffee table, one of the few pieces of furniture they had. He let Loki go first, watching as he smacked on his arm to find a vein still in use. As he stuck the needle into the now raised blue line, sucked up some of his blood before pushing the brown liquid into his blood stream. Victor picked up his own needle as Loki leaned back against the sofa behind him, let his head fall backwards at a right angle to the rest of his body as he closed his eyes and let out small moans.

Once Victor had injected himself he lay back on the floor and let the smack flow through his system.

 

Victor stood at the end of a long corridor, with an endless amount of doors on either side of him. Cautiously he stepped forward and began to walk. It was a place he’d been before, he was sure of it. It didn’t matter how long he walked for, the end of the corridor never became closer. Victor looked behind him to see if he could see an end that way, but it appeared to be a mirror image of what was in front of him. The only way out would be one of the doors then, but which one? Victor continued to walk. There was nothing to distinguish the doors apart, they were all the same height and painted in bright red. Eventually Victor stopped, walked back a few steps and faced one of the doors on the left. He wasn’t sure what it was, but this door seemed different. Victor quickly ran his eyes over it, and glanced at the door next to it. They were exactly the same. With a deep breath Victor covered the door handle and pushed it open.

Victor didn’t know what he was seeing, the room was too dark. Without reasoning Victor stepped in the room. The floor was soft, and Victor frowned down at it to see it was made entirely out of mud. When he looked back up, the room was no longer four walls, he was surrounded by trees. He recognised this. Victor’s stomach dropped and he turned around ready to leave the room but found the door missing. “Victor,” a ghostly voice whispered from behind him. Victor held his breath as the voice repeated. “Victor, look at me.” He knew that voice, it was female, his mother’s. “VICTOR!” The voice screeched. Victor breathed out and slowly turned around. It was only when he looked down that Victor saw her. He stepped back as she crawled towards him, skin discoloured, head 180 from the position it should have been and arm stretching towards him as she pulled herself from the Earth. “Oh, my little boy,” she said in what were once sweet tones, but was now morphed into something evil. Victor stumbled backwards, and felt something hit his back. He instantly turned around, prepared to fight something away. He was met instead with the image of Loki hung from a tree thrashing as he tried to remove the rope from around his throat and also stretching a hand out towards him. A part of him told him to help, to provide support for Loki’s legs, but he was frozen in place staring at Loki’s face. Blood poured from Loki’s mouth and the sockets of his eyes where his green ones once shone. Victor jumped violently as his mother's hand clutched onto his leg. “DON’T LOOK AWAY FROM ME!”

“Vic-tor,” Loki gasped while choking on his own blood.

“YOU DID THIS TO US!”

“N-no,” Victor stuttered, trying to shake his leg from the dead women’s grasp, “I didn’t do this. He did!”

“Hel-p m-,” Loki continued to thrash, hand now managing to take hold of his shirt.

“YOU SHOULD HAVE SAVED US!” Victor fought to remove the hands from him, and fell backwards to the floor. From this angle he could no longer see his mother’s face, but his eyes caught a silhouette approaching them in the distance. Victor knew instantly who it was without seeing their face.

“No! Stay away from me!” He screamed pushing himself backwards in a desperate attempt to keep the distance between them. It wasn’t long before he hit his back again. Victor allowed the fear to overcome him as he knew exactly what, or more who, he had hit. His shoulders were pushed backwards, and Victor’s face met that of his father’s. His father’s mouth morphed into a smile and spread until it split his entire face from ear to ear. Victor screamed, and tried tearing at his father’s face. His vision began to go dark around the edges as his father’s face came closer to his own, and soon he could see nothing at all. The only thing left was the sound of his own screams.


	2. Closure

Loki stared at his boyfriend as he screamed in his sleep. Victor had told him multiple times not to wake him up when he did that, because he always ended up attacking Loki in some form. So Loki sighed and ignored the banging from upstairs telling them to be quiet. He got up from the sofa and made his way back to the bedroom; Victor was ruining his mellow high.

Loki had come to terms with his past a long time ago, but Victor was still struggling. Not consciously, but he had to be concerned over it sub-consciously, otherwise why would he be having these dreams? They started life off pretty rocky, and they were no where near getting better, if anything they were worse. They had both found their own peace on that. They’d never be famous or successful. The closest Loki was ever going to get to that was allowing his sexual image to be posted online or sold under the table for dozens of people to wank over. Their health had gone to shit, and it seemed they’d always be a slave to heroin. Their life revolved around it. Loki fucked for money he spent instantly on smack, and Victor did whatever illegal activity was asked of him which they used to pay for their mess of a flat. Neither of them earned much, maybe it was because the people paying them knew they were desperate for whatever they would give. They couldn’t afford to haggle for more and risk losing the small amount they were getting.

At least they had each other, but Loki wasn’t sure that meant anything anymore. Deep down Loki felt like he still loved Victor, and thought Victor felt the same, but Loki's mind didn’t think that was true for either of them anymore. Loki wondered if Victor loved him when he told Loki to have sex with random men on camera. Loki wondered if he loved Victor when he told him to kill someone for the money he’d get in return. Loki wondered if they were just using each other. Maybe they were just together out of convenience, they were both in the same boat after all, and they helped each other survive. Loki knew that if they were to separate neither would be able to keep a roof over their head and keep up their drug habit. So maybe Loki didn’t love Victor, maybe love didn’t mean anything to him anymore. Loki couldn’t remember what love felt like.

The ones you loved always ended up hurting you. That Loki had always known and would always remember.

Loki wondered where he would be now if he hadn’t fallen for Victor, and allowed him to drag him down.


	3. Buried Alive

Victor wanted to say this was an average day at work, but he had never been on this side of things. His boss, Thanos, had a unique way of punishing those who disappointed him. Victor had failed to steal a file from one of Thanos’ enemies and so it was his turn for punishment. In Victor's defense, he highly doubted that the file had ever been on the computer Thanos asked him to hack into, and was sure it never existed in the first place. Perhaps this was Thanos’ way of getting rid of him. Perhaps Thanos thought his uses out lived, he was afterall a heroin addict, and while Victor was a mastermind when it came to computers, his addiction was a liability.

Victor didn’t bother trying to fight back as two of Thanos’ lackies made him lie in the coffin. He’d seen this happen before, if you fought, you were knocked unconscious and that put you at a disadvantage, the blow could be fatal. “You know the rules, von Doom. You get out of the box, your misdeeds are forgiven. You don’t get out, you die.” As soon as Victor nodded his understanding, a chloroform soaked rag was put over his mouth. The last thing Victor saw before his eyes closed was a smirking Thanos and the lid of the coffin coming over him.

It took Victor a few moments to remember where he was when his eyes finally reopened. He didn’t let himself panic, panicking would only use up his small amount of oxygen and waste the small amount of time he had to work with. Instead Victor cleared his head and tried to remember the points he’d made for himself while he’d been shoving dirt on coffins containing someone else previously in the same situation he was in now. Not a lot of people made it out, those people were always those who fought too hard when being put in and others who Victor can only imagine had screamed in frustration or panicked when waking up. They had to go back to the burial site and dig back up the people who didn’t make it to get rid of the evidence. Once or twice Victor had dug out people who had made it half way out of the box, he can only imagine they’d die of exhaustion or suffocated on the dirt. There were of course people who did make it out, people like Bucky Barnes, who was constantly being buried in the box.

Victor started kicking the lid of the coffin until it breached; it took a lot longer than he had wanted, though he couldn’t say how long. Thanos wouldn’t make it easy by burying them in a cheap flimsy coffin. Victor continued to break the coffin further above his torso until the dirt began falling in slowly. He moved the dirt toward the edges of the coffin, making sure to get as much in here as possible which’ll make it easier to start pulling himself out, while being careful not to pack himself in so he wouldn’t be able to move towards to the exit.

Victor struggled to move his head towards the hole he’d made, there wasn’t much room to manoeuvre himself. He thought about a time when he’d tried to give up heroin, a long time ago now. He’d decided to go cold turkey; he’d boarded up the doors and windows, and locked the tools away afterwards in a safe only a close friend knew the combination to, who would only give it to him after he’d faced the worse and come out the other side. Victor had lasted three days before he was tearing at the wooden planks at his window with his bare hands, and had climbed out the two story window with splinters in his fingers, breaking his leg when he came in contact with the floor. He’d done that, he’d do this. So he gave himself motivation, as soon as he was out, he’d go shoot up with Loki.

That defiantly had him moving, and an unknown amount of time later Victor was pushing his hands out of the top of the soil, spreading the hole apart to make room for his head. He breathed in deeply as soon as his head was free. It was still light out and Victor squinted violently. Victor laughed manically to himself, he had felt pretty touch and go for a while, but he was free and Thanos could not use this against him again. He could defiantly put him back in the box, but Victor now had no fear that he wouldn’t get out. Victor’d avoided death, he figured for most this would cause some life changing moment, a need to get out and make their life better. Not Victor though, he was going to get a hit which threatened his life every time.


	4. Mistaken

Loki rolls off the floor when the knocking on the door increases. He had hoped he’d be able to ignore whoever was there but they seemed too persistent to leave. The door didn’t have any type of lock on it, it’s not like Victor and Loki had anything worth stealing, so if the person wanted to come in so badly they were free too.

Loki yanked the door open and stared with hazed eyes at the person on the other side, until his mind realised who it was, and he forced himself to straighten up. “Thanos,” he greeted with a forced smiled, “come in,” Loki opened the door wider and stepped aside allowing the well-dressed man in, as well as two of his lackies. They made Loki feel inferior in more ways than one. They were nicely dressed, especially compared to his shabby clothes, they were stronger than him, and they were more successful than him. Yes, Thanos was a mob boss, but he lived in a fancy house, had tons of money and he wasn’t wasting away like Loki.

 

“What’s with the surprise visit?” Loki asks sitting with his hands on his lap on the opposite side of the sofa as Thanos.

“We come bearing bad news I’m afraid.” He says scooting himself over anyway. Loki didn’t like Thanos, he knew he was dangerous and he may be okay with Victor getting messed up in that, but Loki didn’t want to. “Step outside.” Thanos ordered his lackies who quickly left the two of them alone. Loki’s mind suddenly mentions Victor’s name. Of course, why else would Thanos be here? Loki feels his stomach drop.

“Has something happened to Victor?” He voice holds more concern than he would have thought it would. Maybe he does still love Victor.

Thanos smiles at him and nods. “He’s dead.” Loki’s hands fly up to his mouth, and he shakes his head. Thanos didn’t have to be so blunt about it. He and Victor may not be as close as they were, but Loki still cares. Still he surprises himself when he feels the tears sliding down his face, and a hic-up leaves his mouth. He’s crying. Loki hasn’t cried in a long time. Heroin makes everything okay.

“Would you mind,” Loki starts wiping his eyes, “if I cooked up?” Loki’s not sure why he needs Thanos’ permission. But he doesn’t get it.

“I’d rather you didn’t,” Thanos says taking a hold of Loki’s chin, “I don’t like drug addicts. You’re different though.” Thanos rubs a tear from Loki cheek with his thumb, in what Loki figures should be a comforting gesture, but it makes him inwardly cringe. Loki remembers Victor doing something similar when the two had first gotten together, back when Loki was an emotional wreck. Loki’s breath shudders. “I can provide you with a better comfort. You can come with me; I can offer you better than Victor ever could.” Thanos is so low as to hit on him after telling him his boyfriend has just died. Loki’s body shakes out a sob; he can’t think straight right now. He knows he’ll never be able to survive without Victor now, he should jump on Thanos’ offer, but…Victor’s dead. He wants Thanos to leave, he doesn’t want to think about what he’s going to do now, he just wants to mourn his loss.

“I can’t even consider that right now,” Loki pushes Thanos’ hand off him and allows his eyes to spill more tears. “What happened? To Victor?” Loki asks, suddenly realising he hadn’t.

“That doesn’t matter,” he says taking a hold of Loki’s face once more. Loki tries to resist as Thanos brings his mouth to meet Loki’s own. That certainly went from zero to one hundred pretty quick. Loki has no qualms about kissing random men, he does do it as a living, but he can’t right now. He wants Victor, he needs Victor.

 

A sob escapes Loki once more and Thanos moves back from him. He looks annoyed, and Loki just stares back at him with tears glazed eyes. “Loki,” he starts in a warning tone before the door flings open.

“Victor!” Loki shouts and Thanos turns around to the face the newly arrived male with irritation. Loki feels a lump rise in his throat and cries harder before running and throwing his arms around his alive boyfriend. “You’re okay.” Loki whispers, and pulls back to smile at Victor before frowning. Victor is covered in mud. He has bits of it in his hair, and his face and clothes are so filthy. “What happened?”

“Victor, I’m surprised,” Thanos says coming up behind Loki, who moves to Victor’s side. The ache in is heart is the only thing remaining from his brief mourning now replaced with confusion. “I didn’t think you’d be strong enough to make it.”

“You sound disappointed,” Victor says. He’s not stupid enough to glare at Thanos as he talks, as much as Loki can tell he wants to.

“Of course not,” Thanos forces a smile before turning to Loki. “I’m sorry to have upset you prematurely. I’ll see you again.” Loki stares expressionless at Thanos’ back as he leaves their flat.

 

“What was that about?” Victor asks glaring now at the door.

“A misunderstanding I guess, he told me you were dead,” Loki’s voice breaks, and he moves to hugs Victor’s torso, ignoring how dirty he is, “I’m glad you’re not.”

“You were upset?” Victor says looking down at him in confusion.

“Of course,” Loki says moving back away, narrowing his eyes at Victor.

“I didn’t think you cared.” The pain in Loki’s heart pings again as Victor walks out the room to the bathroom. Loki follows.

“I didn’t think I would either,” Loki says folding his arms and leaning against the sink as Victor begins to shed his clothes. “I didn’t think we loved each other anymore, but the thought of not having you around anymore, broke my heart.” Loki looks up from where he was staring unsure at his feet to find Victor staring at him. “I love you still, Victor. Please don’t leave me.”

Victor quickly closes the space between them and kisses him. Loki wraps his arms around Victor’s neck and kisses him with more passion than he feels like he has in years. Victor breaks the kiss and leans his forehead against Loki’s. “I’m going to have a shower, and then we’re going to have sex okay?” Loki bites his lip and nods. “Don’t ever make that mistake again. Don’t ever think I don’t love you.”


	5. Do Not Enter

Following his and Victor’s confessions, Loki felt a new lease of life, and a need to go out and do things. It made him realise he hadn’t been to see his friends in some time. So dressing up in his cleanest clothes, that’s what Loki sets out to do today. When you’re addicted to heroin, nothing else matters but the next hit, and you don’t care about anything. I suppose that might be the case with most addictions though.

Loki ended up going to the Hellfire club to see Emma. Hellfire was a strip club own by Sebastian Shaw, whom Loki referred to as the man Emma whored her body out for. Emma was dancing on one of the poles in a very small bra and pants when Loki walked in. It was early afternoon, so there weren’t many sleazy men in the club at the moment, but enough for Loki to look around in disgust. Yes, he the drug addict who acted in porn videos looked in disgust at men who were probably richer and better than he was.

“Loki, nice to see you,” the bar tender, Azazel, whom Loki’d come to know, greeted, “can I get you a drink?”

Loki shakes his head, “I don’t really have money right now.” On the plus side, at least Loki wasn’t an alcoholic.

“You’re a friend of the club, have one on me.” It wasn’t just Emma who was his connection here. The video’s he stared in were sold in one of the back rooms. Loki doesn’t object as Azazel pushes a drink his way, and he sits at one of the stools and waits for Emma’s dance to finish. When she finally does, another girl takes her place, her body entirely covered in blue paint.

“Who’s that?” Loki asks frowning in confusion, he can’t say he’s seen her before, but then it has been a few months since he was last here. Still, Loki didn’t like seeing people he didn’t know. They couldn't be trusted.

“That’s the new girl Mystic, pretty hot right.”

“Can’t say it’s quite my thing.”

“Loki,” Emma greets loudly, coming over to hug him in no more clothing than she was in previously, “it’s been so long, how are you?”

 

After a brief chat at the bar with Emma, she takes him out back. Emma’s quite like himself and Victor; her life had taken a wrong turn too, but unlike Loki and Victor it wasn’t her doing. Now she lived in a little room, in the back of the strip club she worked in. All the girls who worked here, lived here too, Sebastian said it earnt the club more money as the girls were always ready to use as and when someone wanted them. It was a strip club out front and a brothel out back. So each girl’s room was a place men could pay to fuck them whenever they pleased. It wasn’t exactly traditionally, but neither was Sebastian, he happened to work for Thanos too. Back to Emma though, she had once been a member of a rich family who during her teen years had gone bankrupted after the Frost International company had been outdone by Stark Industries. In an attempt to bring some wealth back to the Frost family, Emma’s father had met with Thanos in a desperate plea for money. Thanos gave Winston an offer; he would give him a large sum of money, in return for his daughters. Loki wasn’t sure what had become of Adrienne and Claudia, but Emma had been given to Sebastian. Loki was sure, with how popular Emma was, she had already earnt back the money that Thanos had given Winston.

Walking past all the girls rooms brought back some of his own childhood memories. Already some of the rooms had ‘Do Not Enter’ signs hung on them, meaning of course that that girl was currently in the middle of spreading her legs for money she would not see. Loki’s childhood didn’t have ‘Do Not Enter’ sign, only threats. Loki’s father had been in the place of the sleazy men paying for sex; however it was Loki and his brother’s on the receiving end, not prostitutes. Still, that was a long time ago, and Loki shook the memories from his head.

 

“Anything new on your side of things?” Emma asks as she pulls on a jumper once they’re in her room. At least Emma’s room was nicer than his flat, the paint wasn’t falling off the walls.

“Victor nearly got buried alive and now we’re in love again,” Loki sighs and falls back on Emma’s bed. It’s so comfy. Loki doesn’t want to imagine what it’d look like under UV lights.

“Only in your life is that a sentence.” Emma smiles, coming to lie next to him. “At least you have someone to love. Maybe things are looking up.”

“I don’t mean to put you down Em’, but our lives are past getting better.”

“You don’t know that, maybe I’ll get Pretty Women’d one day.” Loki laughs at Emma as she grins innocently at him.

 

Their time is cut short after only an hour together when another Hellfire member, Janos, tells Emma she has a customer. Emma gives Loki a kiss on the cheek and tells him she’ll come see him and Victor later in the week, while giving him a sign and asks him to hang it on the door for her. Loki stands outside the room, now having been replaced with another man. “No you won’t,” Loki whispers to himself before hanging the ‘Do Not Enter’ sign of Emma’s door.


	6. Never Again

Loki had once said he’d never let anyone hurt him again. After he and his brothers were finally taken away from his pedophile, rapist father, Loki told himself no one would ever get the chance to hurt him again. After his first boyfriend had broken his heart, Loki said no one would ever hurt him again. After he and Victor had gotten into their first fight Loki had told him he didn’t want him to ever hurt him again. Things didn’t work out the way you wanted them to however and eventually Loki became numb to the pain around him. Maybe it had happened when Victor had hit him, maybe when he’d had sex for a porno for the first time after Victor’s insistence, or maybe after another day of Victor acting cold towards him. Either way, it could be said that Victor had worn him down to no longer expect the world to be nice to him. Loki wondered, after looking at things like that, why he loved Victor. Then he remembered, Victor could be so sweet.

 

Victor had been out for a while, and although Loki said he’d wait for Victor to get back before cooking up another hit, he couldn’t wait any longer. He was in the middle of sucking up the newly formed brown liquid when a knocking came at the door. Loki stared between the syringe and the door, before sighing and getting up to answer it. Loki regretted his decision instantly when Thanos appeared on the other side.

“Is Victor okay? Or have you buried him alive again?” Loki knew that Thanos was dangerous, and what he said wasn’t wise, but to his surprise Thanos chuckled.

“Victor’s doing a nice cussy job for me uptown, he’ll be fine.” Thanos pushes past Loki into his flat, leaving Loki to simply shut the door behind him. He wishes Thanos would leave. “Looks like I was interrupting,” he says picking up Loki’s needle. Loki’s stomach feels heavy and he has a violent urge to snatch it back, “I told you I didn’t like drug addicts, Loki, so we’ll get rid of this.”

“No!” Loki shouts shooting out his arm towards Thanos. “Please give it back.”

“Do you know why I don’t like addicts, Loki?” Loki shakes his head, but keeps his eyes focused on the syringe. “Because they’re weak. You offer them drugs, and they’ll do anything. That may seem like a positive for me, but say one of my enemies gets ahold of one of said drug addicts that works for me. All they need to do is offer the little liability a hit and they’re singing all my secrets.” Thanos dangles the syringe in front of Loki, who moves closer ready to catch it if Thanos were to let it go.

“Thanos, please,” Loki once again begs. If heroin weren’t so expensive Loki wouldn’t be so concerned, but that’s the only skag they have left in the flat now, other than some Loki left for Victor, and Victor’d be really angry if he used that.

“Tell you what, little drug addict, you do me a favour and I’ll give it back to you.” Loki nods rapidly; still his eyes don’t leave the item of his attraction. “Good, then get down on your knees and be the good little whore I know you can be.” Finally Loki’s eyes snap back up. It’s nothing new, yesterday he filmed a video where he did that, but somehow this is different, and he doesn’t want to do this. Loki rolls his shoulders, he needs his fix.

 

Loki falls down to his knees; he’ll get this done with quickly. If it’d been Victor, or one of the many men in those videos, he would have dragged it out and teased, but Loki makes quick work of undoing Thanos’ expensive trousers and pulling his cock out and into his mouth. Thanos is a lot bigger than what he’s used to and as he hardens in his mouth, Loki feels like he has to unclick his jaw to fit.

“Stop,” Thanos grunts, pulling Loki’s head off him, “lie back so I can fuck you.” Loki shakes his head, he won’t do that.

“No, I did what you wanted; now please give me my drugs.” Loki pleads looking up at the much larger man.

“Okay,” Thanos grins before stabbing the needle into his neck. Loki gasps in pain before Thanos pushes the smack into his system, and the pain is replaced by pleasure that causes Loki to moan loudly. Loki doesn’t fight back as Thanos pushes him back harshly so he falls onto his back. Loki is too out of it to focus on Thanos removing his pants and opening his legs, and only comes back to himself once Thanos pushes into him with no preparation. Loki screams in pain, and tries to no avail to push Thanos off him. Thanos grumbles angrily before punching Loki in the face. “Be quite, little drug addict, at least pretend you like it, like you do in your pretty videos and I might even give you a present.” Loki tries hard to control his breaths of pain if only because he doesn’t want to get hit again.

 

Loki feels dirty and used when Thanos is done, and pulls his legs up to his chest as Thanos leaves him an entire block of heroin and winks as he exits. A whole block, that’s more than a thousand pounds worth of heroin, but at what cost. It’d been a while since Loki had last been raped, and he didn’t welcome the return of it. He’s still crying silently to himself when Victor returns home. Victor, who doesn’t question the block of his addiction on the table, instead focuses on Loki as he comes in and wraps his arms around him. He asks what happened, and Loki tells him while curling himself into Victor’s side. Victor tightens his grip on Loki and promises he’ll never let Thanos hurt him again.


	7. Hate

Victor had once hated Loki, in fact Victor could say he still hated Loki sometimes. Loki and Victor were alike in ways that Victor hated about himself. In Loki, Victor saw the same weaknesses that within himself he wanted nothing to do with. At the same time Victor loves Loki, has always loved Loki. Loki didn’t shy away from his weaknesses, and didn’t hate him or run away in the times Victor hurt him. More than anything Loki understood the way the world could hurt you, and Loki was prepared the ride everything out until the end, even if nothing ever got better.

 

Today was not a good day for his and Loki’s relationship, Victor had woken up in a bad mood and his first shot of the day hadn’t subsided anything. Victor glared at Loki from his place on the sofa as Loki made tea on the other side of the room. He thought about tipping the boiling water over Loki and watching his skin redden and pimple from the burn. Victor rose from the sofa and came up behind Loki, pressing his chest to his back and pinning his wrists to the counter top. Loki’s body stayed relaxed to Victor’s presence, and that lightened his mood the tiniest bit. Victor started by biting Loki’s neck gently, which caused a small moan, that’s not what Victor wanted though so he bit harder until Loki whimpered. Victor laughed in Loki’s ear and moved his hands to push down Loki’s boxers. He made quick work of sticking his fingers in Loki and opening him wide enough to allow his cock to fit in. Victor roughly fucked Loki against the kitchen counter, he didn’t need either of them to enjoy it, he just wanted to get off. Once they’d both cum, Victor pulled out of Loki and left him in the kitchen to catch his breath on his own while he took a shower.

 

When the two crossed paths later that day in the small hallway, Victor pushed Loki against the wall and held him there with an arm across his throat. Loki stared at him with nervous and expecting eyes. Victor smiles and let go, it just wasn’t fun if Loki was expecting the blow to come. Victor suddenly had an urge to tie Loki’s hands up and have him kneel at his feet, so that’s what he made him do. Victor sat on the sofa, with his feet propped up on the coffee table while Loki knelt on the floor with his head resting on Victor’s legs and hands tied behind his back. Victor was watching one of the movies Loki was in, if only because Loki hated it, it didn't really do anything for Victor. In this one Loki had his eyes covered and was being forced to suck multiple men’s cocks. Victor looked back to Loki, who was looking out the window rather than the screen. “Get on the sofa,” Victor ordered Loki who complied. He positioned Loki so he was laying on his back with his legs rest on top of Victor’s own. Victor then proceeds to get Loki off, and when he came Victor continued, laughing as Loki rived and whimpered at his over sensitive dick. Eventually Victor stops, and repositions Loki so his head's over his crotch and he can give Victor a blow job. The day reaches it crux when Victor beats Loki.

 

Victor’s staring at the ceiling when Loki comes and joins him in bed after spending the past hour tending to his wounds in the bathroom. When the two of them had first gotten together, Loki would come and ask Victor why he hit him, or what he had done wrong, but he didn’t bother anymore. Victor wraps his arms around Loki when he lays his head on his chest. “Want to talk about it?” Loki asks, and Victor hates him a bit for being concerned even after Victor had hurt him. However, he seemed almost obliged to tell Loki about it.

“I had another dream about my father, one I couldn’t shake off.” Loki stares up at him, waiting for him to continue, which he does while still staring at the ceiling. “He hurt you in this one, not the first time I’ve had a dream about that, but…it upset me. So I woke up angry that you cause that sort of emotion in me, even though I know it’s not your fault. But when I saw you this morning, I just hated you, I wanted to hurt you.”

“It’s okay, I hate you too sometimes.” Loki says snuggling up closer to him. “Luckily for you, I love you even more.”


	8. Burn

Loki wakes up at midday to the sound of his phone buzzing. He groans and stretches before leaning over a still sleeping Victor to get his phone off the bedside table. After unlocking his phone he’s greeted with multiple missed calls and texts from his adopted mother. Loki doesn’t bother to read them, he switches his phone off and crashes back on his cushions.

 

“Your father wants to see you,” Victor says while scrolling through Loki’s phone. Loki hadn’t wanted to know what his mother had to say, but Victor did.

“What else is new? The four of them are always begging me to come back home.” Loki puts down his lighter and picks up one of the needles to suck up the liquid smack on the still hot spoon. It burns Loki’s fingers a little bit.

“No, your real father.” Loki briefly looks up at Victor who’s not looking at him, before putting the syringe in his mouth to free up his hand ready to smack up a healthy vein. Victor waits until Loki’s calmly melting into the floor before talking again. “Will you go and see him?” It’s Victor’s turn now to cook up his own hit and Loki watches him go through the motions with half closed eyes.

 

He hasn’t seen his birth father since he was thirteen, or his brothers for that matter. Loki’s mother had died giving birth to him, so he’d never even got the chance to meet her. Loki was adopted by the Odin family during his father’s trial, his older brother Balestr was put into a temporary foster home, and Helbindi was too old by that point to have a new family, so Loki’s not sure what happened to him. By no means was Loki upset by his lack of contact with them, they weren’t a close family; they were just victims of the same torture.

The Odin family weren’t his family either. Loki couldn’t have any type of relationship with Odin, after spending so long being abused by his father Loki wouldn’t put his trust in an older male, and wouldn’t allow himself to be left alone with him. Loki found himself clinging to Frigga; no woman had ever hurt him. Their sons Balder and Thor took some getting used to. He wasn’t sure how to act around them, he and his brothers hadn’t really spoken to each other, they’d had sex a few times, but Loki knew enough to know that wasn’t appropriate. Eventually Loki found himself really getting along with the both of them, ended up eventually falling for Thor.

 

Loki regretted his decision once he found himself standing outside the Odinson house. It wasn’t often Loki came to visit; he felt no connection here since his and Thor’s break up. He thought about maybe turning around, he could get the address to his father’s prison from someone else. Maybe Thanos? Actually that sounded worse, and Loki shuddered at the thought of Thanos touching him again.

Loki in the end didn’t get the choice to leave when his mother opened the door. “Loki!” She beamed and hugged him tightly. Loki kept his arms at his sides and stared over her shoulder. “It’s so nice to see you,” she pulled back and held his face between her hands with tears in her eyes. Loki didn’t know why she got so emotional; Loki had only lived here between the ages of thirteen and twenty. “You’re so thin! Come in, let’s feed you up.” She took a hold of Loki’s wrist and pulled him inside.

“Actually I’m not staying long, if you can just give me the address I’ll leave.” Loki had tried getting her to give it to him via text, but she said if he wanted it he’d have to come round and see her. Loki didn’t know why he bothered; did he really want to see his father that badly?

“Nonsense! You never come to see me, you’ll stay for a few hours at least, please?” Loki knows he’ll lose if he tries to argue, and so instead forces a smile and nods. He leaves Frigga making him something to eat while he wonders round the house.

 

Loki goes into the living room to stare at all the photos hung on the wall. There are a few pictures of Thor and Blader together as children before Loki had been adopted, and a few of the three of them. On top of the fire place there are two framed photos. One of Balder and Sif on their wedding day, and one of Thor and Jane on theirs. There weren’t any pictures left of when Loki and Thor were dating, Loki had burnt them all in this fire place. Loki picks up the photo of Thor and Jane, they look very happy. He looks back up at the gap now on the ledge, there’d never be a picture of Loki and Victor sitting there. Loki had once had a Polaroid camera which he’d used to take pictures of himself and Victor in the early days of their relationship, but that had long been sold for heroin. There now wasn’t an up-to-date picture of the two of them.

Loki removed the photo of Thor and Jane, lit the edge of it with his lighter and watched happily as it burned up. It wasn’t like his mother didn’t have copies anyway. Loki turned around satisfied, prepare to leave and explore a different room when a canvas picture caught his eye. He didn’t recognise the photo of the blonde child, but he instantly knew who it was. Thor and Jane’s child.

 

“When did Thor have a baby?” Loki asks Frigga coming back into the kitchen.

“Jane gave birth to baby Astrid a few months ago.” She answers not turning around from the stove. “I would have let you know, but I didn’t think you’d want to hear it.”

“It wouldn’t have affected me, I don’t love Thor anymore.” Loki may not love Thor anymore, but he’s by no means happy that he’s happy. Loki had taken their break up badly and now he was a drug addict, living in a crumpling flat with no life ambitions, while Thor was successful getting married and having children. No Loki didn’t love him, he hated him. Maybe he could speak to Thanos, maybe Thanos could destroy him.

“Are you still with Victor?” Loki had never introduced the Odins to Victor, and never would. He’d never told them about the life he was living now. They had no idea where he lived, or what he and Victor were doing as jobs. The only thing they knew is that he was taking drugs, which of course they’d tried to help with only to be pushed away. Loki had told them Victor was a self-employed business man, doing odd jobs here and there, as opposed to telling them he was a computer hacker for a mob boss. Loki had told them he was doing small time acting as an extra in d-list shows and theatre productions, as opposed to telling them he acted in porn videos.

“Yes, we’re very happy,” it wasn’t a lie for once, Loki felt like he loved Victor more than ever at the moment, even if he didn’t act like it.

“Good, maybe you can bring him round so I can meet him finally?” Loki and Victor had been dating four years now, why did she still think meeting him was a possibility?

“No, I don’t think that’d be a good idea.”

“Loki-“ Frigga starts finally turning round to face him.

“You’re not my mother. Your sons will bring their partners to see you, but I’m not your son, so don’t expect the same from me. Victor is my family now.” Loki glares at her and she sighs.

“You shouldn’t burn bridges Loki. You’ll regret it when you have no one left.”

“I don’t need anyone. Especially not you, just give me the information I need to see my father.”


	9. Crash

Loki bit his nails as he waited for his father to appear on the other side of the glass. He didn’t want to show weakness, but he couldn’t deny how nervous he was. He kept reminding himself, he was twenty-five now; his father couldn’t hurt him anymore. Thanos was something he had to worry about now, or losing Victor, or running out of smack. These were things that would affect him now, not Laufey.

Still, Loki’s breath stopped when his father came into the room on the opposite side. He didn’t look any different to how he did twelve years ago. The only real change was the orange jump suit and cuffs on his hands. Laufey picks up the phone before Loki does, and waits with a smile for Loki to bring the object to his ear. Loki’s stomach twists at the thought of hearing his father’s voice once more, but he can’t put it off. He’d come this far, there wasn’t any point in turning back now.

 

“Loki,” instantly he reverts back to his ten year old self as his father’s voice floats in his ear, and tears well his eyes as he stares across at him, “look how much you’ve grown up.” Loki doesn’t dare speak, he just nods in agreement. Why did he come here? Why did he think this was a good idea? “Tell me how your life is.”

“I-it’ss g-oo-d.”Loki stutters, and mentally scowls himself for it. He was stronger than this. Loki shuts his eyes, and takes a breath before looking back his father. “It’s good,” he says again. He wonders if his father will be pleased with how his life has turned out.

“Really? Expand. I want to know exactly how your life is going while I’m stuck in here wasting away because of you.” Loki frowns. It’s not his fault, he didn’t make Laufey rape him, he didn’t go to the police about it and out Laufey and his crimes.

Loki however isn’t brave enough to argue with his father about that though, and instead answers his questions. “I’ve been dating someone now, for the past four years, we’re really happy together. We understand each other. His father abused him too. We’re both heroin addicts though, so that’s not so good.”

“Your boyfriend, he works for Thanos, right?” Loki raises a questioning eyebrow at Laufey, how does he know Victor? “Word gets around. I also hear Thanos has taken quite the interest in you.”

“I guess so. He raped me.” Loki thinks most fathers would be concerned about their children telling them that, but Laufey’s smile just widens. Something dawns in Loki’s mind. “Why did you ask to see me?” Was Laufey hoping to use Thanos’ interest in his son?

“I need you to do me a favour,” he says leaning closer to the glass, “very simple, just ask Thanos to come see me.”

“Why do you need me to do that?” Why would I do anything for you, is the question Loki really wants to ask, but he worries how his father would take that.

“He hasn’t answered my requests so far, but he likes you. So you give him want he wants in return for coming to see me. We both know you’re not opposed to using your body to get what you want.” Loki’s stomach drops in disgust, and he shows it visibly on his face.

“You raped me, I never used my body.”

“I’m not talking about that. We can’t watch pornos in here, for obvious reasons, but it’s easy enough to sneak in images. Let’s say I have quite the collection of your work Loki, looks like our time together made you quite the whore.” Loki very rarely feels shame in his line of work, but he feels dirty. After all this time his father is still using his body, even if it is just an image of it. Moving his tear flooded eyes away from his father’s gaze, Loki stares down at his lap. Hating himself a little more everytime a tear hits his lap. “Now Loki, why don’t you be a good little boy and run along to Thanos for me?”

“I don’t have to do anything you say anymore,” he shakes his head.

“Trust me, son,” Loki cringes at that word, “I may be in here but I can still find ways to hurt you. I know about Thanos’ interest in you, I know your boyfriend’s name, Victor von Doom, right? I know you have connections in Hellfire, and I know that the porn website, Hydra, you work for lives underneath you. So do what you want, if Thanos doesn’t come to see me in the next week, expect a present from me.”

 

When Loki gets back to his flat he screams in frustration. Why did he do that to himself? What did he think he was going to get from that? It's not like he could have rubbed his life in his father’s face, saying yes you may have hurt me but I’ve got this now, because he didn’t have anything! Loki angrily takes his jacket off and throws it on the floor before pulling his smack out from the shelf on the coffee table and begins to cook up. Loki still continued to cry even after he’s shot up, and so begins searching the flat for alcohol to drown his sorrows in. Loki drinks, cries and screams until he crashes on the sofa in exhaustion.

 

“It didn’t go well then,” Victor comments as soon as he steps into the flat. Loki groans and moves onto his back to look up at Victor.

“Shut up! Come have sex with me? I feel like my life couldn’t get any worse right now.”

Victor smiles at him, before crawling on the sofa and above him until they’re face to face. “Silly, Loki, your life can always get worse, but don’t worry, I’ll pick up when you crash.”


	10. Blood

Victor wasn’t sure what the best way around Loki’s problem was. He didn’t think it was really an issue if Loki was to just get everything over with and have sex with Thanos, he had sex with people all the time. However, Victor promised Loki he wouldn’t let Thanos hurt him again. On the other hand, if Loki went to Thanos willingly, chances are he wouldn’t hurt him the way he had before. But Thanos was psychotic so that wasn’t guaranteed. There was also the fact that neither Victor nor Loki had anything else to offer Thanos. It might also be something to consider that Laufey had an empty threat, yes, he clearly had someone feeding him information about Loki, but did he really have something to hurt him with. Victor supposed he could get the same person following them to also kill them.

Victor was very conflicted. He felt like if someone came to kill them, he could handle it. Then a thought struck. Why wait for the murderer to come to them, when Victor could eliminate them first? Victor told Loki he’d be back later and left the flat in search of some information.

 

He starts by visiting Hellfire, and he’s lucky enough to find Emma, Azazel and Janos gathered together at the bar. “Victor, not sure Loki would be happy to see you here,” Emma greets him before pulling him into a hug.

“Don’t worry, I’m here on business not pleasure,” Victor accepts the drink Azazel makes him and downs it quickly. “Someone’s been gathering information on Loki. They knew Loki had connections here, do you know if anyone’s been asking about him?”

“One of the guys from Hydra was in here discussing Loki with someone; I figured they might have just been talking business, but it might be worth looking into,” Janos tells him.

“Do you think you’d have a picture on the CCTV?” Victor whispers, no need to let the customers know they’re being watched.

 

Victor leaves Hellfire with a picture of his current suspect and makes his way back to the flat to see Hydra. It might have been an idea to start there, seeing as it was only a few metres from his front door, but then Victor wouldn’t have had the photo to use against them. The man in the photo seemed to have the whole right side of his face scared, so he shouldn’t be too hard to find.

“Victor, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Madame Hydra, one of the owners of Hydra, greets him kindly. She didn’t live in this grotty flat, Victor knew she had a large penthouse uptown, Hydra was after all quite popular, so he didn’t understand why they did most of their operation here. It was clear though that before Hydra her life had been rough, the right half of her face was always covered by her hair, to hide the scarred tissue underneath. Victor wasn't completely sure what had happened to her, only that it had something to do with a police raid on her home when she was a child.

“Someone’s out to hurt Loki, thought you’d be willing to help, considering how popular he is.” Madame Hydra rolls her eyes and Victor takes a seat next to her.

“I’m not sure how you think we can help.”

“I just need you to look at this picture and tell me if you know either of them.” Victor says handing over the photo. She looks at him in what seems to be irritation, before taking it from him.

“I know them,” she comments handing the photo back to him and turns back to her computer. Victor stares at her waiting for an elaboration which doesn’t come.

“Are you kidding me, Ophelia? Tell me who they are.” She leans her head on the back of her hand. Victor sighs heavily. “What do you want?”

“I’m glad you asked. You and Loki are both very attractive, if the two of you do a video together, I’ll tell you who he is and where to find him.” Victor considers the options he has. Run around trying to figure out who this guy is on his own. Make Loki have sex with Thanos. Loki and Victor have sex on camera. Victor doesn’t want people to watch him having sex, and he defiantly doesn’t like the thought of someone masturbating over him.

Victor leaves Hydra with his information in hand, glaring at Loki when he says he hopes they get a free copy. “Seriously though, Victor, thank you,” Loki hugs him when they get back into their own flat. He ignored Loki in favour of cooking up a shot.

 

Victor stares up at the building his slip of paper has directed him to. This is where Malekith lives, the spying lackie of Laufey. It was lucky he lived in a rough area, but then the whole of Lower Marvel was rough, so no one would go running to the cops if Malekith screamed, hoping that things go right of course. The fact that no one would come to help might turn out to be a bad thing, if Victor ends up being murdered instead. Still, he had high hopes, he wasn’t near as useless as Thanos seemed to think he was.

Victor enjoyed using a knife, it was so much more intimate than using a gun. He thinks about the times he’d cut Loki, watching as his pale skin turned red and his back arched. Victor didn’t get any sexual satisfaction from cutting up Malekith though. Still, he got a sick pleasure from spilling as much blood from his body as possible. It ends up everywhere, Malekith himself was in a pool of it by the end, and the red liquid was slick on Victor’s hands. Victor laughed manically at his reflection in the blood. It wasn’t the first time he’d killed, but he defiantly enjoyed it.


	11. Splatter

Loki felt an instant stir in his stomach at the sight of Victor when he entered the flat. It’d been a while since he’d seen him like this, but he defiantly appreciated the return. Loki could only stare as Victor came and sat next to him on the floor. He enjoyed it more up close. Victor had blood splattered across his face and up his neck, although it was hard to see, his black clothing was soaked in it. “Things went well?” Loki asks leaning closer to Victor and putting his hand on top of his thigh.

Victor looked down at it before looking back up and smiling at him. “Of course, I won’t let anyone else hurt you.” ‘Anyone else’ of course meaning anyone but Victor, Loki knew that. Loki welcomed that.

“You’re so hot like this,” Loki said getting straight to the point. He ran a finger down Victor’s face as his eyes dilated with lust. “Fuck me.” There was no too soon or too quickly in their relationship. Loki could say the relationship lay heavily on sex, and so they were never not interested. Which Loki found strange, all the people they knew who took heroin had no sex drive, the blood just didn’t flow down there.

Within the time it took Loki to blink he was pushed onto his back with Victor above him. Their lips crashed together, and Loki tasted the lingering amount of blood that must have also splattered on Victor's lips. When Loki breathes in through his nose he's meet with an intense wave of copper from Victor’s soaked shirt. Loki made quick work of removing it, and revealing Victor’s skin that was stained red. He groaned and rolled his lower half upwards. It was almost painful in the way that Victor pressed his crotch down on Loki in a desperate attempt for friction. This wouldn’t last long, they both just wanted to get off.

They both breathed heavily as Victor began undoing his trousers and Loki pushed his own boxers down. Loki started spreading himself as Victor spat on his cock covering it in his own natural lube. Victor took Loki’s fingers out, and bent him in half when he was finally ready to stick his cock in Loki’s loose hole. Loki was glad they didn’t have carpet, from the rough way Victor was fucking him he would have ended up with carpet burn along his back. Loki arched his back and moaned low as he reached his orgasm, shooting his cum all over his chest. Victor pulled out and moved a still breathless Loki to suck his cock. Loki gagged and his eyes welled up at the lack of air. It didn’t take long for Victor to take his cock back out and Loki took a deep breath while Victor pumped himself before cumming all over Loki’s face.

The two of them lay next to each other on the floor as they caught their breath. What a sight they must have looked, Loki thought. Both of their faces splattered with a different bodily fluid. Loki giggled and moved to peck Victor on the cheek before collapsing back down again.


	12. Fade Away

Loki spends most of his days half focused, laying on the sofa staring at the wall while fading between reality, his dreams and memories. Today was no different. To celebrate the escape from his father’s brief clutches, Loki gives himself a higher amount of skag than usual, and it makes him feel so good. So good infact, that it allows his mind to do something he would normally never allow it to. It goes back to a memory of himself and Thor.

 

Loki had been sixteen, and Thor seventeen when the two of them had first had sex. Thor had been reluctant at first, and then overly careful throughout, on account of the sexual abuse Loki had gone through. It had made Loki happy though, he felt a warmth in his heart he hadn’t before when he and Thor were lying side by side afterwards. Thor had pulled him close and hugged him tightly, and Loki knew there was nowhere else he’d rather be than in Thor’s arms.

His parents hadn’t approved of course. They accused Thor of taking advantage of him, and told Loki that he didn’t have to offer his body to people anymore. They believed Loki was still an emotional wreck after what had happened to him. Loki assured them he wasn’t, but it took a long time before they approved of his and Thor's relationship.

Loki remembers the happiness he felt simply walking with Thor with their hands clasped, or sitting in his lap as they watched TV. It truly felt like his life was heading in the right direction. Yes, he’d had a rocky start, but with Thor by his side he felt inspired to make the most out of life. He felt like most people would have crumbled in his position, would have continued down a dark path, but not him, he was going to do great things with the life he had left.

When Loki was eighteen he graduated college with an A-level in Psychology, which he went on to use to get into University and study Criminology which he went into for obvious reasons. He wanted to understand why his father had done what he had done. He went to the same Uni Thor had started a year previous, and Loki was looking forward to seeing Thor everyday once more. Thor often tried convincing him to spend the whole day together, but Loki had always declined with a bright smile on his face. His lessons and his studying were his top priority. Loki knew how hard it was going to be getting a job after he graduated, and while he knew that was years away he wanted to make sure he stood out and shone when the time came.

While Loki was busy studying he didn’t notice Thor's interest shifting elsewhere. One day Loki called Thor while leaving the library asking if he’d like to go out and do something together, it was the first time Loki’d given himself a break in a while, and he decided to make the most of it. Thor however already had other plans, and declined, leaving Loki stood outside dumbstuck. Thor had never said no to him before, but Loki decided not to linger on it. His boyfriend couldn’t be expected to drop everything for him.

Loki had been nineteen and in the middle of his second year at Uni when the other shoe dropped. Thor and Loki had been spending even less time with one another as of late, not even focusing on his school work distracted him from the thought that he was losing his boyfriend. He shook that idea from his mind. Thor loved him, they were going to be together forever. Loki wipes the tears from his eyes and smiled, they’d be together forever.

Of course Loki had been wrong, and Thor broke up with him, saying their three year relationship just wasn’t working anymore, and he’d met someone else. Loki’s heart broke a little more with every word Thor spoke. He didn’t understand. What had he done wrong in this relationship? Was it because he was trying to apply himself academically instead of partying like Thor and his friends? The first guy he’d truly trusted ended up breaking his heart, and it was in that moment that Loki realised that the people you loved would always hurt you. He was sure he’d probably loved his father at one point, before the abuse started. Loki found himself unable to focus on his work anymore, as questions of his life constantly swirled inside his head. He started skipping class and saw his grades falling and didn’t care. All that work over the past year and a half now meant nothing. Loki decided nothing was worth applying yourself to.

Loki spent months like this, wallowing in his heart ache, and passing through each day like a mist, never really focusing on anything. Eventually Loki turned twenty, and one of his friends forced him to snap out of it and introduced him to the wonders of heroin. Loki soon after moved out of his adopted family’s home, to live with his friend where he would spend each night destroying his body and mind a little more, before he became a shell of who he once was.

 

Loki blinks as he comes back to reality, and sees Victor sat on the floor next to him in the middle of injecting himself. It hadn’t been long after moving out that Loki had met Victor, but they didn’t start dating until a while after that. Loki didn’t trust himself not to fall in love and get hurt again. Victor may hit him, and hate him sometimes, but he had never hurt him like Thor had. That might be because Loki’s become numb to it now, but Loki preferred to think he and Victor just fit together better.

“Victor,” Loki whispers, stretching his arm out to touch his boyfriend’s shoulder, “please never leave me.” Loki’s arm went limb and fell back down. He faded out again before hearing Victor’s response, if he even gave one.


	13. Evil

Victor didn’t believe he was a bad person, he knew bad people, his and Loki’s fathers were bad people. He’d killed people, yes, but that was for the greater good. No doubt Malekith was a worse human being than himself, after all he worked for a pedophile and would have killed Loki. He had protected Loki, and that was what good people did, not the bad. Of course Victor was a drug addict, but that wasn’t hurting anyone, it’s not like he’d ever forced anyone to take drugs or caused someone else’s addiction. Loki was hooked before they even met. He also worked for a mob boss, but everyone had to get by somehow, and it wasn’t like he was destroying people’s lives, he just helped someone who did. Yes, he also hit his boyfriend and had persuaded him into a porn career, but Loki needed a job, and Victor knew Loki got off on the hurt most of the time.

Victor had never woken up needing to justify his life; he felt no shame or guilt with how things had turned out. Maybe disappointment. He’d like to be in the place of Thanos, powerful and feared. Loki had recently told him he was evil though, during one of the days he got over emotional, screamed at Victor and decided he could have been so much better than this. Victor hadn’t helped; he’d rolled his eyes at Loki and told him there was no way he would have ever been anything other than the scum of the Earth. It was at that point that Loki had tried attacking Victor, broke their coffee table in the process, told Victor he was an evil bastard and asked him to go die before storming out. It’d been a few days since then and Loki hadn’t come back, Victor wasn’t concerned though, Loki always came back eventually.

Victor had been the one to kill his father. It was his first kill actually, and one of the best things he’d ever done. He’d been sixteen, and had fallen into a bad crowd two years earlier who’d persuaded him to go through with the task. Victor’s father had abused him till the day he died. He had come into Victor's room drunk after work one night and had tried feeling him up. Victor had stilled, he’d learnt long ago that it was useless to fight, but that night was different. His mind filled with rage as he thought back to the conversation he’d had with his friend earlier that day who’d told him how easy it would be to kill his father. With a force he hadn’t bothered to use in years Victor pushed his father off him and stormed out the room and down to the kitchen. His father laughed and quickly followed him down. It’d all happened pretty fast, Victor picked up a knife from the block, “now, now Victor,” his father smiled walking into the room. He’d only just made it behind Victor, when he span around and drove the knife up to the hilt into his father’s neck.

The first laugh escaped Victor when he father choked up his own blood. When he removed the knife, blood splattered on his face and his father’s body fell to the ground. Victor grinned while sitting on his father’s chest, watching as he continued to spill blood from his mouth. He then twirled the knife once in his fingers before rapidly plunging the knife in and out of the body of his abuser, laughing manically the whole time.

Victor couldn’t say how long he spent piercing his father, but when he pulled back, breathing heavily, his father’s once white shirt was completely red and shredded, his own legs were soaked in blood and his arm ached.

Back then he hadn’t known how to deal with a dead body, and had called up his friend Johann to help him. Johann had killed before, a girl named Ester who’d refused to had sex with him. He disposed of the body for Victor, with a simple ‘one day you’ll owe me a favour’. All Victor had to do was play dumb when his father’s work colleges phoned up asking why he hadn’t been at work, or the police when they showed up on his door step telling Victor his father was being listed as a missing person.

Johann was good to Victor. He got him the flat when the landlords kicked him out. Johann at the time was living in the flat underneath setting up Hydra, and Victor would help out sometimes with the computer work, either fixing a broken light, or figuring out and showing Johann the editing process. It wasn’t long till Johann asked for his favour though. He got into a bit of bother with Thanos, owed some money he didn’t want to pay back. Thanos offered him the chance to do a job for him, rather than handing over the money. Johann said he wouldn’t be anyone’s tool, and offered Victor’s services instead. It worked out well for everyone. Johann had paid Thanos back, Victor had paid Johann back, and Thanos gave Victor a job working for him.

Victor ended up meeting Emma when Thanos and Sebastian had a meeting. Thanos decided that Hellfire was part of his turf, and so Sebastian had to start paying for protection. It must have ended well as the pair of them walked out smiling. The meeting of Emma was significant as it lead to the meeting of Loki.

 

Victor was in the middle of cooking up, hunched over a plank of wood left over from their coffee table which Victor was now using to stand his gear on, when Loki made his reappearance. Victor only briefly looked up at him before turning back to the task at hand. Loki came and knelt behind Victor, snaking his arms around Victor's chest and resting his chin on his shoulder. “I love you,” he whispered into Victor’s ear before kissing the shell of it.

“Really?” Victor asked in a bored tone, and felt Loki nod against him. “Well, I’m sure that’s going great for you, right Loki?” He didn’t feel like dealing with Loki’s affections right now, and knew that if he was spiteful enough Loki would sulk away.

"I’m sorry, Victor,” Loki said clutching to him tighter.

”I don’t care,” he tried shrugging Loki off him, “get off.”

”I wish you were nicer to me.” Victor rolled his eyes. He was as nice as he could be to Loki, he always seemed to forget the things that Victor did for him.

”I wish you wouldn’t come back. I wish you’d stay the fuck away from me.”

”You don’t mean that.” Victor hmm’d in response and tried to block out Loki’s presence instead of arguing with him. “I didn’t mean what I said.”

The ‘yes you did’ was on the tip of his tongue, but that wouldn’t create an impact and at that point Victor just wanted Loki to leave. “I want to stab you so much right now. I want to watch the light leave you eyes. I want to cause you intense pain. Because I am evil, but I’m the best you’re ever going to get. Unless you leave now, but where would you go? Thanos is the only other person who wants you,” Victor laughed, “or your dad I guess. Poor little Loki, he’s down in the gutter and he can’t climb out.”

Victor smirked as he felt liquid hit his neck, only to fall again when Loki spoke once more. “Say what you want to me Victor, because you can’t push me away. I love you, and I know you love me, and so I’ll always be here.”


	14. Serial Killer

Victor and Loki were watching the news in Hellfire, drinking at the bar with Sebastian and Emma. Emma didn’t get many days off, and the ones that she did were only when Sebastian decided he didn’t want to share her. Loki had once thought about buying Emma for the day and letting her have a proper day to herself, but with the rates Hellfire charged he couldn’t afford to even buy her for an hour. “Can you turn that up?” Victor suddenly asked Azazel who was busy polishing glasses, but he complied. Breaking news: Serial Killer’s fourth victim. The news presenter spoke of a fourth body having been found this morning, the death of which strikingly similar to that of three more that had been found over the past month. They all died due to trauma made mostly to the back, seemly whipped to death.

”Sounds like one of Thanos’ men are getting sloppy,” Sebastian commented. More than ever Lower Marvel seemed to be ruled by Thanos, you had to go to him for permission for everything, and that included murder. Murder that could only be done by those Thanos trusted enough to clean up after themselves, after all, Thanos didn’t want his patch soiled.

”I don’t think so,” Victor hmm’d with a frown, before pulling out his vibrating phone.

”That our lord and saviour calling?” Emma asked with a smirk.

”I’ll see you later,” Victor said kissing the top of Loki’s head and leaving without a confirmation.

 

Thanos was sat at the top of the long mahogany table when Victor walked in, with two of his favourite assassins on either side of him. The first thought that rolled into Victor’s head was that Thanos was going to try and kill him again, in fact that was the only thought he had. He didn’t trust Thanos, and given what had happened to himself and Loki, he was in just means not to. Victor stood at the opposite end of the table and waited for Thanos to address him, holding his gaze as he stared down at him. “Victor I’ve got a job for you,” he finally rumbled, “you’ve seen the recent murderers that have hit the headlines. I don’t like the works of the underground being made aware of to the public. It can cause unnecessary panic, or worse, awareness.” Victor nodded when Thanos stopped, knowing he wasn’t actually expected to talk. “So I need this threat to the peace eliminating. I’m right in thinking you already know who’s behind it?”

”Yes,” Victor said bluntly.

”Good. Go after him, take him out and make sure you clean up after yourself. If I see it on the news iswell Victor, you’ll be next.” Victor turned his eyes to Ronan at Thanos’ left side, the strongest of his men, and then to Gamora at his right, the best of his assassins. With them at his disposable, why was he asking Victor? If he wasn’t sure before, he defiantly was now.

”If you don’t mind me asking, are you sending me to kill Whiplash because you know I can do it, or because you hope he kills me too?”

Thanos leaned forward with a smirk. “And why would I want that?”

”We both know the answer to that. You can’t take Loki from me, and you won’t be able to remove me from his side either."

 

Victor took a bag from the boot of his car once he was outside the abandoned warehouse he knew Anton Vanko had moved into. Anton had once worked for HammerTech, the underground company that supplied weapons to Thanos and the like. Anton had pitched an idea to Thanos about electrically charged whips, which would cause the victim to be sliced in half. Thanos had of coursed rebuffed the idea, guns were much more effective, and the owner, if you could call him that, Justin, had fired Anton on the spot, embarrassed by the disappointment on Thanos’ face. Anton was now either doing this as a way to get some sort of vengeance on Thanos, or to prove that his invention was able to cause the destruction Thanos doubted it could. Either way, Victor didn’t care; he just wanted to get this over with.

 

It didn’t take long for Victor to stumble across Anton in the large building, and when he did he was hunched over what Victor presumed was his work table. “Anton,” he said making the other male aware of his presence.

”Victor,” he greeted back in his thick Russian accent, but didn’t turn around.

”I’m sure you know why I’m here,” he said getting straight to the point.

”Yes, although I’m not sure why he sent you, I was expecting Gamora, clearly our great leader does not take me seriously still.”

”That’s not it,” Victor said slowly pulling out the gun from the back of his trousers, “he’s hoping you’ll kill me.” He turned off the safety as quietly as he could. Anton was much too confident, a smart man wouldn’t keep his back to the person who was there to kill him, and Victor was in no way going to wait for him to finish monologing like Anton was some cliché villain.

Anton laughed, standing up from his desk, Victor noticed something zap and turn blue, “and that I will, Victor!” As soon as Anton turned to face him a blue rope swung at Victor, narrowly missing him. Victor quickly shot his gun, but from the shock only managed to graze Anton’s arm, which didn’t seem to faze him.

Victor only took a second to see what Anton was sporting. What appeared to be blue ropes must have been the electrically charged whips, which were connected to rubber gauntlets on his hands. Victor didn’t get chance to wonder how they worked, as he had to quickly step back and dodge the whip once again coming to his face. With the way Anton was rapidly swinging at him Victor wasn’t able to make a clear shot, and instead moved back until he was able to get behind one of the concrete pillars to assess his next possible move.

He took a breath and looked around him. Yes, he could peek round the corner and shoot him, but in the time it would take for him to aim for the head or heart Anton could easily take another swing at him. There was a crack above Victor’s head as one of the whips came in connect with the concrete, leaving a scorch mark in it’s wake. Again the crack now came on the other side, and as Victor noticed the sparks, he realised the outside was coated in live electricity. Victor quickly raised his eyes, hoping to find the object that would save him. Sprinklers. The ceiling had dozens of them. With a brief sigh of gratitude Victor began looking for a lever that would activate it. The whips landed now next to Victor’s foot, and it stung Victor without even touching him.

Victor quickly got up and made a run for the next pillar. He guessed Anton couldn’t run with those on his hands, least he risk hurting himself, and he didn’t have to worry about Victor leaving. Anton knew he couldn’t go back to Thanos while his mark was still alive. Thanos would box him again. Victor’s eyes darted about the room as he heard the cracks getting closer.

Finally Victor’s eyes found the lever. He pushed himself away from the pillar and began to sprint over to it. He stumbled as he had to bend down to narrowly dodge the whip that came flying at his head. Victor used his elbow to smash the safety glass, and cut his hand on it when he pulled the lever down.

The water didn’t start straight away, and Victor stared at the smirking Anton in fear that they no longer worked. However as they began spurt, and finally gushed down, he breathed a sigh of relief. The rubber on Anton’s hands may not conduct electricity, but his bare feet in the same puddle of water as his whips definitely did. Anton’s eyes widen as his body began to violently shake. Victor took that opportunity to shoot Anton in the middle of his forehead, then quickly got out of there before the water connected and the electricity reached him.


	15. Love

Victor still had the issue of having to dispose of the body of Anton without electrocuting himself. The whips had probably short circuited but that didn’t mean the water wasn’t still live. He could burn down the building, but that would still make a headline and that was the opposite of what Thanos wanted. The only other option was to go in there with nonconductive clothing. Unfortunately, Victor knew exactly where to get that.

 

“You want to borrow a what?” Loki laughed, a lot drunker than he was when Victor left him. Victor didn’t know whether he should be disappointed or not that he’d been sat at the bar all this time.

”I electrocuted my mark,” Victor explained to Sebastian ignoring Loki all together, “I need to clean up the mess but I can’t do that without being electrocuted myself. So I need something rubber to act as a break in the circuit between the water and my body.”

”And the best thing you could think of was one of our rubber gimp suits,” Emma smirked twirling the straw in her drink.

”It’s not ideal,” Victor sighed, “but it’s the best idea I’ve got. Thanos wants me dead, I won’t give him the satisfaction, even if it does mean looking like a twat.”

”I’ll have you know, they’re really popular,” Sebastian scowled at him. “Come this way, I’ll sort you out.”

 

Victor was going to be wearing it under his actual clothes, but still he felt entirely idiotic as he was awkwardly fitting into the suit. He hated the way it clung to his skin, showing the outline of his entire body. “I kinda like it,” Loki grinned suddenly leaning against the door behind him. He was getting changed in Emma’s room, and of course none of the girls’ rooms had locks. “Think it’d be interesting if you were to fuck me while wearing that.”

”You’ve got to be joking,” Victor said glaring at Loki as he begin to pull his trousers back on over the top. A bit of a tight fit.

”No,” Loki smiled biting his lower lip, “it could be thrilling. I mean, as soon as you’ve got that mask on, you could be anyone. I couldn’t say for sure what the guy fucking me would look like.”

”Well, why don’t you suggest it as an idea for your next porno?” Victor suggested pulling his shirt on, “after all, you never know who those guys are either.”

”But I want to try it with you,” Loki said dejectedly as Victor pushed past him out of the room.

 

Loki had crazy ideas sometimes. They’d done a few sexual things Victor hadn’t been entirely comfortable with, and maybe that was because deep down he wanted to be the person Loki had the best sex with, no matter how many guys fucked him. Victor thought about his and Loki sexual exploits as he hacked up Anton into little pieces. He wondered if Loki would enjoy getting electrocuted.

 

He wasn’t sure at what point it was, but by the time Victor got home, the idea of fucking Loki in the latex suit, seemed like a great idea. The thought of going into the bedroom while Loki was asleep, chaining his hands to the bed post and from there begin to plough into him. The idea of Loki in his half asleep state not knowing what's going on, and waking up freaking out, but eventually having to give into the pleasure he was receiving.

So that’s what he did, and the two of them very much enjoyed it. Victor came back into the room after removing the suit to find Loki fucked out and still chained to the bed. It was a sight Victor would never get sick of. He leaned against the door frame and watched him. Loki turned his head and smiled at him lazily. “I love you, Victor.”

”I love you too, Loki.” He pushed himself away from the door, and went to lie next to Loki.

”I thought you didn’t want to do this?” Loki said pulling at the chains still around his wrists. Victor took it as a hint Loki wanted letting go but ignored it. He got a sick pleasure knowing Loki was tied up.

”Well you wanted to do it, and I guess love is doing things for someone you’re not comfortable with to make them happy.” Victor grimaced at his own words, but didn't say anything else. He didn't always feel the need to wipe Loki's smiles from his face.


	16. Terrier

Their next door neighbours had a dog. It was important to mention that at this time because it was keeping Loki and Victor awake. They both tried covering their ears to block out the insistent yapping, but it was no good. In the end Loki screamed angrily before throwing the covers off and storming out of the room. Victor watched him go with his wide awake eyes before following after him. Loki had made it to the living and was now beginning to cook up on the floor. From the living room the dog's barking wasn’t quite as loud, but you could still hear it and it made Victor grind his teeth in irritation.

Loki hmm’d happily as he poked his skin with the needle, and bit his lip as he began to push the toxic fluid into his arm. Victor watched him, and leaned over to take the syringe out of Loki’s arm once he’d fell to lie on his back. He kissed Loki hard on the mouth before starting to cook up his own hit. Even when they were high the dog's barking could still be heard, but it just didn’t bother them anymore. They began to fuck, and continued to do so until they reach a point of exhaustion and passed out on the living room floor. Finally able to get some sleep.

 

It was clear from Thanos’ face that he wasn’t entirely happy to see Victor when he walked into the room that day. Yes, the job of getting rid of Whiplash had been accomplished, and yes Victor had done so without causing a stir, but Victor was still standing there alive and well. However, as much as Thanos wanted Victor dead, he still had his uses, and killing him outright would be no where near as satisfying as having Victor’s death come by his own hands. Still, that could take a while, and Thanos really wanted to have another go on Loki. He wasn’t sure what it was about the little drug addict he liked, but he wanted more of it.

“Well done, Victor,” Thanos said with a smirk that made Victor want to punch him in the face, “I’m very impressed.”

”I’m sure you are,” Victor said with a small sneer.

”Now, now,” Thanos grinned evilly, “there’s no need for that attitude.” ‘You raped my boyfriend, and are trying to get me killed,’ Victor wanted to say, but he knew it was smarter not to push Thanos too far. Thanos slid two envelopes across the table. “One is you payment for Whiplash, the other is another job. Don’t let me down.” Thanos rose from his chair and left the room, leaving Victor to glare at his back.

 

Loki stretched as he waited for everyone else to come in the room. It was time to work, the alcohol and food were running low in the flat, so Loki took up Hydra’s proposal to film today to get some extra much needed cash. They hadn’t told Loki the scene they wanted to play, but he didn’t mind that, he liked surprises.

Thanos entering the room however was not a nice surprise. Loki’s whole body froze as he walked around the room to turn the camera on. Loki stared at it rather than Thanos as he stalked closer. “What are you doing here?” Loki growled, violently turning his head away as a large hand touched his face.

“Isn’t it obvious, we’re going to make a little movie for your boyfriend.”

 

Victor groaned as he finially got home. Thanos had sent him to the other side of Marvel, to the Upper half, for a bit of petty theft. He saw no point in it, not until he stepped back into his flat. The TV was playing and on the screen was one of Loki’s porn videos. Only this one was different, this one featured Thanos. Victor stepped further into the room, letting the front door shut by itself, and watched unblinking while his body slowly filled with rage as Thanos raped his boyfriend in front of him. Loki’s mouth spilled with noises of pain and it reminded Victor of the yapping terrier.

Victor picked up the closest item to him and threw it at the TV screen. A hole burst in the middle, but the scene vanished. “Loki!” He shouted, trying to find the male. He looked in all of the three rooms and found nothing. He pulled out his phone and rang him instead. “Please pick up,” he repeated under his breath.

“Victor,” came Loki’s voice through the other end, small and timid.

“Loki, where are you?”

“I’m at my mother’s, I just needed to get somewhere safe.” Victor breathed a sigh of relief, Loki was okay. They had a code word should either one of them get into trouble, in the world they lived in it was a necessity. “I’ll be back later.”

“No,” Victor said quickly, “you need to stay there, where Thanos can’t get to you.”

“Victor I don’t want to stay here, I want to be with you,” Loki says in a pleading voice and Victor runs a hand over his face.

“I’m sorry, Loki, I was supposed to protect you but I can’t at the moment. Just let me figure something out.” Victor didn’t know how he was going to sort it out, and he didn’t know how long Loki was going to have to stay there for. He didn’t want to think about it as a possibility, but maybe them being separate would have to be a permanent change, for Loki’s sake. He wouldn’t mention that though.

“I think you’re over reacting, it’s not that bad.”

“Thanos has raped you twice now.”

“I’m used to it.”

“Loki that’s not something you can say to justify what’s just happened. This isn’t a debate, you’re staying there.” Victor quickly says his goodbyes to Loki and hangs up.

 

Victor was hungry for revenge, he wanted to kill Thanos, but there wasn’t a how to right now. Thanos was powerful, there was no touching him. Victor stood quietly in his and Loki’s room, not a single thought filled his head. Not until the yapping began again. Victor went to the window, the dog was jumping around the garden, but all Victor saw was Loki in pain. Slowly he opened the window and pulled his gun out from the back of his trousers. He shot the dog, and the silence brought him peace.


	17. Orgins Unknown

It was at this point that Loki regretted running to his mother’s house. At the time it seemed like the only option. After Thanos had gotten off Loki he threw on his clothes and ran out. There was no way he was going to his flat only a few metres away; as much as he trusted Hellfire it was basically owned by Thanos; the friend he normally ran to when he and Victor got into a fight worked for Thanos and so did the drug dealer that he got his gear from. Loki didn’t know anyone else. In that reasoning, he’d forgotten all about the person he was avoiding here.

Of course his mother didn’t warn him, but Loki tried not to act shocked or bothered by the presence of Thor in the kitchen when he walked in. “Afternoon,” Thor greeted with a smile, Loki didn’t answer and quickly looked away to go about his morning routine. He didn’t know what his mother was thinking though when she excused herself from the room with a smile directed towards Thor. “How have you been?” Loki kept his back towards his ex-boyfriend and poor excuse of a brother as he focused on making himself cereal. He’d wanted toast but didn’t want to stay in here any longer than he had to waiting for it to cook. “Loki come on, you can’t be mad at me forever, surely you’ve moved on.”

Loki turned to him with a glare. “Of course I’ve moved on. I’m with a guy that loves me, and would do anything for me,” it wasn’t exactly true, Victor would kill for him but he wouldn’t share his last 8th of heroin, “and I love him more than I ever did you. But I have full right to hate you, and I will always be mad about what happened.”

“It was just a break up Loki, it happ-“ Loki held up a hand to stop Thor there.

“There’s no way I’m talking to you about this. I don’t care about our past; I just don’t want to speak to you.” Loki picked up his cereal and retreated back upstairs, the sound of Thor sighing heavily behind him.

 

Loki’d been at his mother’s for a week now and he missed Victor like crazy. He said he couldn’t come visit, least Thanos follow him and find out where Loki is. Loki was beginning to worry whether this was going to become a permanent thing. He felt no love when he saw Thor again after so long, only annoyance. Thor was in no way his type anymore. It brought Loki some comfort, if he still had any doubts on whether he loved Victor or not, he could throw those away. Another bad thing about being here is that Loki couldn’t comfortably shoot up, he had to constantly listen out for anyone coming to his room, and make sure the smell didn’t make it’s way onto the landing or hang in the room. The sooner Loki could leave the better.

 

Loki didn’t leave his room again until his mother called him down for dinner. His body was lucky if Loki remembered to feed himself even once a day, but being here he was getting two meals a day. At the table Loki’s forced to sit opposite Thor, being so close to each other twice in one day, next they’ll be fucking. “Is Victor going to come visit you while you’re here?” Loki stops pushing his food around to look up at his mother. She just doesn’t give up with this.

“No.”

“Who’s Victor? Is that a new boyfriend?” Jane, Thor’s wife, asks with a friendly smile while spooning mush into her child’s mouth. Loki’s not bitter towards Jane, he doesn’t need to be, he has Victor, she can have Thor.

“We’ve been together four years.” Loki decides that’s enough conversation for now and turns his eyes back down to his plate. He feels eyes staring at him though and looks back to his mother smiling with pity at him. “What?” Loki snaps.

“Sweetheart, have you and Victor broken up?” Loki takes a moment to think about it. Of course not, is the automatic response, but Victor wasn’t really speaking to him right now. However that was only because he was sorting things out for Loki to come back, right? Yes, he and Victor were still together, Loki wouldn’t let Victor breakup with him too.

“No, we’re still together; Lower Marvel just…complicates things.” There’s no chance Loki’d tell them about Thanos, and he had to be careful what he said about his and Victor’s lives.

“Speaking of which, tell them honey,” Jane says joyfully, nudging Thor who smiled around at them. Oh, how Loki wanted to watch them crash and burn.

“I’ve had a promotion at work!” Frigga and Odin both erupt into congratulations, while Loki sits there staring at the oddity of it. “Myself and a few others are moving to the Lower Marvel precinct and I’m going to be their DCI.” The people around him seem very happy. Loki doesn’t understand why. They didn’t know the innings of Lower Marvel like Loki did, but they had to have known about how rough it was. Loki’d seen what Lower Marvel did to good cops. It was Thanos’ turf.

“Why would you accept that job?” Loki hates the concern that spills from his mouth, but Thor was going to get himself killed.

“Because it needs changing up, and I can do that. Look at Upper Marvel, the crime level is one of the lowest because people know we’ll take them down.” Loki also wanted to point out that Upper Marvel was filled with over privileged assholes whose sense of adventure was drinking wine in the afternoon, whereas Lower Marvel was thieves, prostitutes and drug addicts. There was such a contrast between the two areas, it was hard to believe they were the same city.

“You’ll get eaten alive, you don’t know what it’s like there.”

“And of course you do?” Loki felt like screaming ‘I’m the one that lives there, I’m one of them! I’m a drug addict, and a porn star. Do you know Thanos Titan? Because he rules Lower Marvel and he’s raped me twice so far. And Victor works for him! He’s killed people for money and for me! And maybe one day you’ll be one on his hit list too.’

But he didn’t, instead he went with a simple, “yes, I do. Why do you think I’m here?” Loki stood from the table and made his way towards the exit, his plate barely even picked at. At the door he turns to speak over his shoulder. “Piece of friendly advice. Don’t move your family there.”

 

Victor resists the urge to go see Loki. They’d never been apart this long before, in the time they’d been dating that is, and he hated it. Seeing Loki wasn’t an option at the moment though, not until he’d gotten something sorted. The first place he’d gone to find some sort of idea was Hellfire. Over the years it’d been his go to for everything. The four of them, Azazel, Janos, Emma and Sebastian were loyal to the two of them, and despite the club being under the protection of Thanos they could be trusted.

Sebastian had taken him into a back room, said they’d talk privately. He told Victor about a new group forming on the border of Lower and Upper, said Deadpool was in here whisper shouting about it not long ago. His name is Norman, and Sebastian gave him an address of where to find him, if you were to trust Deadpool. Wade was Deadpool, and Wade was a drug dealer. He dealt to both Loki and Victor, and despite working for Thanos, the two hated each other. It was highly likely that Deadpool would be going behind Thanos’ back and hyping up another player in town. So Victor went to check it out.

Norman seemed to be even richer than Thanos, Victor thought as he stared up at the large tower. This was the new potential mob boss, the owner of Oscorp? Victor didn’t know whether to be disappointed or impressed. There’s no way a rich business man, sitting within the glass walls of his office, could take on Thanos. But then what other choice did Victor have? He could start his own gang, but that needed resources. He could take Thanos down on his own, but that meant getting past his fire power. Victor knew he didn’t stand a chance with the later. So he walked into the lobby of Oscorp, and hoped for the best.

 

Norman Osborn turned out to be quite an ambitious man, too ambitious Victor thought. He had lots of ideas, but Victor worried how well they’d work. Still, he didn’t have much of a choice. Beggers couldn’t be choosers. Victor had explained to Norman his current situation, how Thanos wanted his head and his boyfriend. How he was ready to take Thanos down.

“I’ll be straight with you Victor,” Norman started, standing from his chair on the other side of the desk, “I don’t trust a word you say, I’m sure you understand why.”

"Yes, as soon as Thanos gets wind of you, if he hasn’t already, he’ll be sending people after you. There’s no reason he hasn’t sent me to infiltrate the beginnings of your organisation before it takes off.” There was no reason for Victor not to be honest; he needed Norman’s trust and alliance.

"Exactly and how would you have heard about this if not from Thanos?”

"Deadpool. He’s a drug dealer that works for Thanos. He was running his mouth in Hellfire about you.” Victor smirked slightly when he heard Norman’s heavy sigh. Better he learn now rather than later how untrustworthy Deadpool could be. “The information was past to me from the owner, Sebastian, when I asked him for advise on what to do about Thanos.”

"Well, I won’t be using Deadpool for any further work.”

"He’s good at what he does,” Victor stands from the seat now iswell to approach Norman who’s staring out at the city, “he just can’t keep his mouth shut.”

"You want to work for me?” Norman asks turning his head to look at Victor.

"I don’t want to work for anyone. I want Loki to be safe. If you can’t do that then I’ll find someone else.”

"I can do that, but you’ll have to prove yourself first.”


	18. Crawl

Proving himself results in Norman giving him a number of targets to take down, all D listers of Thanos, but all those he'd previously worked with. Victor wouldn't say they were friends, so there was no emotional factor holding him back in the kills, no regret. He was more concerned about Thanos finding out. He was smart enough to ensure the bodies weren't found, but it was only a matter of time before someone noticed their absence and the news made it up to the leader.

Victor felt many of the same emotions he did when he first began working for Thanos, a whole seven years ago. Back then he was constantly concerned about being caught by the police, which was now replaced by Thanos. He remembered the struggle of having to crawl up the ladder, not that he got that far with Thanos, but he was definitely higher than he was when he did his first job. Thanos hadn't even spoken to him back then, and now he was summoned to speak directly to him. He was trusted to do jobs on his own. No, he wasn't on the same level as Ronan or Gamora, but he was above the losers he was putting down now; it's just a shame he got stuck there. Maybe he wouldn't have left. Maybe Thanos would have respected him enough not to touch Loki.

Victor had to remember the end result would be Loki's safety, and that was the most important thing. However Norman was beginning to stress him out. It would take time to gain Norman's trust, but he didn't have seven years to prove himself useful this time. Loki had to be made safe now, before Thanos got his grips on him again. He'd only been working for Norman two weeks, and been away from Loki for sixteen days, but Victor thought it too long. The thought of himself and Loki being permanently separate was not something he wanted to make a reality. At first it hadn't been that bad, and Victor thought he'd be able to let Loki go, told himself Loki would be better off on his own, at first it was an easy thought. Now that time had gone on Victor realised how empty his life was without the other male, and the loneliness was beginning to drive him insane. He couldn't even go see his friends at Hellfire, not while he was positioning himself as an enemy of the Thanos Empire. Life was slowing down to a painful crawl, and he began to wonder, for the first, or in a long time, what the point in his existent was.

The depressing thoughts only made Victor angry, and forced him to march back up to Oscorp to confront Norman. Victor could do the job, he wasn't wasting anymore time proving that.

 

“Excuse me, sir, you can’t go in there!” The black and red haired secretary stood from her desk outside Norman ’s office as Victor walks past her into said office. He’s writing at his desk with a blond man with large muscles whom Victor vaguely recognises when he stops inside. “I’m sorry, Mr Osborn, I tried to stop him.” She glares up at Victor who returns the look.

“It’s fine, Victoria ,” Norman says while handing the blond man an envelop, “you can leave.” He tells both of them, who nod before exiting. Victor eyes follow the man until the door closes behind him. He couldn’t place where he knew him from.

“Who was that?” Victor asks.

“Sentry. Nothing for you to worry about.” Norman shuts some folders as Victor approaches his desk. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

”I’m done proving myself, I need Loki to be safe now.” Norman simply regards him as Victor glares.

”Okay, but I have one more job for you.” Norman says, rising from his seat before leisurely walking over to his bar to make himself a drink.

”Are you fucking kidding? We need to take down Thanos. He’s already raped Loki, and tried throwing me under the bus, imaging what he’ll do when he discovers I’m here, or finds out where Loki’s hiding.” Norman smirks over his shoulder, which makes Victor’s blood boil.

”My son ran away, he’s recently developed a drug habit-“

”Well that’s not really my problem now is it, Osborn? I think that says something about your parenting.” He turns to face him now raising an eyebrow. “Anything wrong with the child is all down to the parent.”

”You think so?”

”I know so.”

Norman just stares at him curiously before continuing. “I need you to pull my son out of whatever drug den he’s hiding in and bring him home.”

”Are you even listening to me?” Victor throws his arms out in frustration. “I don’t have time to baby sit.”

”Thanos isn’t going to go down easy, Victor. Whether we start tomorrow or next week, it’ll still take a while to drag the king off his throne.”

Victor rubs his hands over his face and sighs heavily. “How do I find your son?”

 

Victor finds himself an hour later knocking on one of the doors of Upper Marvel, he felt very out of place. He looked around as he waited for someone to answer the door. Somehow everything seemed brighter here, the grass was greener, the flowers were colourful. The door finally opened to reveal a smiling teen with glasses. Victor rolled his eyes, this kid would be eaten alive in Lower. “Where’s Harry, Peter?” Victor asks before the kid could say a word.

"Do I know you?” Peter stuttered, frowning slightly.

”No, but if you don't answer the question we'll get to know each other real well.” Victor narrowed his eyes as Peter gapped at him. “Come on,” he said dragging the skinny teen out the house with one hand and shutting the door with the other, “let's go for a drive.”

 

“Drugs?” Peter repeated. The two were in Victor’s car, he didn’t know yet where they were driving to, Victor just sort of hoped he’d get lucky and Harry would suddenly appear. Maybe jump in front of his car. “I mean Harry’d been acting different, but he’d never do that.”

”What do you mean acting different?” Victor glanced at him out the corner of his eye, before turning back to the road.

”We got into an argument over Mary-Jane,” Peter sighed an slumped in his seat.

”Do you expect me to know who that is?” Victor snapped. There was nothing he hated more than whinny teenage problems, but he needed something to work with.

”It’s this girl we both like, she lives next door to me; I’ve known her forever -obviously not literally- and I’ve always liked her. So had Harry though, but he got there first and asked her out, but she-“

”I don’t give a shit!” Victor exclaimed angrily, slapping his hands on the stirring wheel. “Just tell me where we might find Harry!” Victor finally lost it when Peter shrugged back. He hit the brakes and hoped Peter would smack his head on the dashboard or at least get whiplash. Neither of those happened. Victor turned to glare at Peter once the car stopped. “Listen, I’m not in the mood. My boyfriend could be found, raped or murdered by a mafia boss at any moment. I need to find Harry to get help to stop that from happening. Now tell me where to find him!”

Peter visibly gulped nervously. “Um, maybe with Edward Brock? Harry’d been speaking to him recently, he lives in lower Marvel.” Victor nodded before lifting the hand brake off and starting the car off again.

“Was that so hard?”

 

Victor left Peter in the car as he went to knock on the door of this Edward Brock’s house. He tapped his foot impatiently and counted to ten before kicking the door in. “Harry?” Victor called out while moving into the house. He heard music coming from upstairs and made his way up there. The room the music was originating from was full of smoke when Victor walked in to find a blonde haired boy and what he guessed was Harry, both leaning up against the wall sharing a joint. Weed, Victor rolled his eyes, Norman had been a little over the top when he was going on about a drug den.

”What the fuck are you doing?” The blonde asked, frowning up at him.

”Shut up,” Victor said dragging Harry up by his arm and pushing him out the room.

”Hey!” Harry exclaimed, but Victor ignored him, shoving him down the stairs and into his car.

 

“Victor, what are you going to do about his door?”

”What is he doing here? And who the hell are you?”

”You can’t just leave it like that.”

”I cannot believe you grassed me up, Pete.”

Victor turned on his car and drove away trying to push Harry and Peter’s voices from his mind as they began to squabble. Victor had been a teen once, but he never remembered being this annoying or high pitched. Time seemed to drag on, and despite how fast he was going the car seemed to go at a crawl. He couldn't get back to Oscorp or away from these teens fast enough.


	19. Should Have Known

It was time for the weekly Sunday dinner, and like Loki had become accustomed to doing while eating as a ‘family’, he was pushing his food around his plate while slumped in his seat. It wasn’t just Loki, Odin and Frigga tonight, but Thor, Jane, Astrid, Balder and Sif too. Loki felt more than out of place as they all laughed happily with each other. Balder hadn’t given him a too friendly eye when he saw him for the first time in years, but Loki had just glared back and given Sif a stilted greeting. He said hello to Jane to prove he wasn't bitter, glanced at the baby and didn't say a word to Thor. To be fair the group had tried pulling Loki into their conversation, but it held no interest to him, and he couldn't muster more than a hum. Loki was just sighing to himself for the millionth when a knock came at the door. “I’ll get it!” He exclaimed, quickly getting off his chair and practically running to the door, anything to get away from them.

Loki couldn’t have smiled wider if he'd tried when he was greeted with a familiar face upon opening the door. “Victor,” he gleed quietly, not wanting to draw his mother’s attention. Loki shut the door and stepped outside before throwing his arms around his boyfriend. He felt his eyes well up as Victor kissed the side of his head. He blamed his over emotional state on the recently lack of skag, he’d had some of course, but no where near as much. “I’ve missed you so much.” Loki had begun to doubt that Victor would come back for him, but he should have known his companion wouldn't abandon him.

"Me too, but everything’s sorted now.” Loki pulled away to look at Victor.

"You dealt with Thanos?”

"No, but I have the means to now, and I can at least keep you safe in the mean time.” Loki smiled and began to kiss Victor when the door opened behind him. 

"Oh!” His mother exclaimed. “Sorry, I was just checking you hadn’t run away.” Loki glared at her, knowing full well she hadn’t done that on accident. “Do you want to introduce me, Loki?”

"Not really,” he answered through gritted teeth, his good mood just pulled out from underneath him.

"I’m Victor.” Loki’s glare turned to his boyfriend as he held out his hand. They both knew that Loki didn’t want either of them to meet, yet here they were betraying him in front of his very eyes!

"Yes well, we must be going now mother. I'll just go and grab my things.” He went to push into the house but Frigga quickly side stepped in front of him.

"Don’t be silly, Loki. We were just in the middle of dinner, Victor, you’ll have to come in and join us, it’d be rude to drag Loki away when he hasn't even finished.” Loki looks to Victor begging him to argue with his mother but he doesn't, and the two of them are lead back inside.

 

"Everyone," his mother starts as the trio come back into the dinning room, "we have a guest joining us for dinner." Loki rolled his eyes and pulled Victor down into the seat next to him at the table. "This is Victor, Loki's boyfriend." Loki frowns at his 'family' as they all have their mixed reactions. Both Odin and Jane greet Victor with a smile and attempt to bombard him with questions before quickly being backed off by Frigga. Balder and Sif are both nonplused and Thor looks on with a curious expression, causing Loki's glare to deepen at him.

"It's crazy we're only just meeting you, Victor." Thor says when Frigga gets back to the table placing a plate of food in front of Victor.

"Is it?" Victor questions. "I can't see why you were expecting Loki to bring me here at all, when he doesn't really like any of you." Loki giggles and smiles widely at Victor. Balder's eyes go skyward. "I do appreciate you looking after him though," Victor says sincerely, turning to Frigga.

"He's my son," she replies simply, "both of you are welcome here anytime."

"Ya'know, Victor, Thor's a policeman, and he's being transferred to Lower Marvel." Loki tries to convey a message to Victor through his eyes while rubbing his thigh. A 'be careful about what you say'. Victor eventually hums but doesn't say anything to Thor.

"What are you doing at the moment, Victor? Loki says you're self-employed." Odin speaks up from the end of the table.

"I'm currently at Oscorp, working personally with Norman Osborn on a new business venture he's interested in." So that's what Victor has been up to over the past nearly three weeks. Loki makes a note to get more information from him later.

Odin goes to ask a follow up question just as Jane butts in. "I know you! Von Doom, right?" She pauses for a confirmation to which Victor nods. "We went to the same High School. Jane Foster? We were in pretty much all the same classes."

"Oh yeah," Victor drawls with blank expression, "you were obsessed with space."

"Well, I'm an astrophysicist now. I always assumed you'd go far, you were miles smarter than everyone else. You didn't belong there to be honest." Loki raises his eyebrows. Jane is complimenting Victor? Victor was super intelligent? Loki always knew he was smart, but not that smart. "But you disappeared Junior year, I thought you might have been taken on by MIT, but..." She trails off, and that's clearly when the praise ends. Loki translates it to himself 'but you clearly didn't, because you're a nobody now'.

"After my father went missing I could no longer afford the basic pleasure of attending school anymore. I had to go work to support myself. I continued to tutor myself in computer programming though, so most of my work now is to do with that, and I can find something more mentally simulating being self-employed, than if I were to have a standard 9 to 5 office job." Loki's well aware Victor is lying through his teeth, but goes along with the act by smiling proudly up at him, before turning his smug face to Jane.

He's officially done with this get to know you session, and doesn't put up with them much longer before dragging himself and Victor away. 

 

Loki doesn't bother asking questions about where they're going, he trusts Victor's taking them somewhere safe. The first thing he plans to do when they're...wherever they're going, is to shoot up with Victor and fuck him in a drug haze. He leans back in his seat and stares at Victor as he drives, focusing on the road. God, Loki had missed him. "I love you," Loki mutters.

"I know." Victor shortly replies. Loki waits for him to reply with 'I love you, too' but it doesn't come, not that Loki minds. He knows how much Victor loves him, and can't imagine what he's been through to ensure his safety. He can't believe he'd doubted Victor, he should have known he wouldn't let him down. After everything they'd been through, they had to hold on to what they had.


	20. Prized Possession

Loki and Victor didn’t have a lot to call their own. Anything they did have had long been sold in favour of drugs. So when they moved into the flat Norman had gifted them they didn’t have anything to make it personal.

Their flat now was a stark constant to what they were used to when they were living above Hydra. The flat was on the top floor of one of the tower blocks Oscorp owned, and Norman had introduced it to them as a ‘luxury penthouse’. It was extremely light and spacious, the whole of one wall was a one sided window that lead out to a balcony where you could see both Upper and Lower Marvel, as like Oscorp, the tower sat on the edge of both. The lower level was just one giant room, only a breakfast bar separating the kitchen from the living room. The bathroom was pristine white and even had a window with no boards blocking the light from coming in. There was a wide set of stairs in the flat that lead to a small upper level that was home to two bedrooms, one of which was now used by Loki and Victor. The only downside to living here, was that Harry Osborn was currently using the other. Norman had asked that Victor keep an eye on his teenage son to ensure he didn’t run off again. It was a wonder why Norman thought that this was a good idea, considering Victor and Loki’s own drug habits, but Victor hadn’t argued, if Norman trusted Harry to be there then it must be safe enough to keep Thanos away from Loki. If not, Harry would only get caught in the cross fire.

Loki stretched as he awoke; the bed alone was so much more comfortable; however Victor wasn’t there to wake up beside him. Norman had a lot more work for him to do than Thanos did, and Loki didn’t enjoy the absence. Yes, he had to be grateful for the lovely home they now had, nothing like Loki even imagined they’d get a look at, but at what cost? As he moved downstairs he looked around, feeling a horrible out of place feeling, like he was a large stain in the room. He wondered to himself how long it’d be until the flat began to resemble their old one. They may be living somewhere posh, but Victor and Loki were still scum; even now the glass coffee table was covered in heroin stained spoons and used needles.

Harry was sitting at the breakfast bar eating cereal while playing on his phone as Loki moved over to the fridge. It was full, not a shelve left unfilled, a sight Loki was not used to; he couldn’t even remember a time when his and Victor’s fridge had even worked let alone held food. There was far too much choice now, Loki didn’t know what he wanted to eat only that he was hungry. Did he want some of the fancy looking dessert, or some freshly made healthy pasta? Loki sighed and shut the door, it was so much easier to eat when there was scarce amounts of food for him to nibble at.

Loki leaned against the counter and stared at Harry across from him. In the short time they’d been living together Harry had been rarely seen without his phone in hand. Who was he even texting? Loki could go months without talking to his friends, and this guy couldn't go two minutes. “Is that thing attached to your fucking hand?” Loki asked. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he didn’t like Harry Osborn. Maybe it was because he was an over privileged ass or…no, that’d be it. All he did was moan about his pitiful issues. Kid wouldn’t know a real problem if it raped him to make a point.

”I’m trying to beat my high score on Crossy Roads,” Harry grumbled back with one of those teenage ‘are you thick?’ looks that made Loki want to punch him in the face. Maybe he was thick, or just getting old, or most likely Harry was speaking gibberish, as Loki didn’t know what the annoying brat was talking about. So Loki left him to it in favour of cooking up instead.

 

“Can I have a go?” Harry asks appearing behind Loki as he’s piercing his skin with the needle. Loki looks up at him with a curious expression, before turning back to the task at hand and pushing the barrel down. He feels an urge to protect his stash and briefly the image crosses his mind of him strangling Harry if he tries to touch it; but that thought’s gone as the liquid begins to flood his system.

”No,” Loki sighs as his eyes roll back in his skull.

”Why do you do it?” Harry asks, he sits down on the sofa to the right of the one Loki’s leaning against. They now had three sofa instead of the one falling apart they had previous.

”Because it feels good, and I wouldn’t be able to stop even if I wanted to.”

”How did you even start? I can’t imagine heroin’s a social drug when you have to have a needle to even use it.” Loki lolls his head to look at Harry and lazily smiles at him.

 

Loki had been twenty when he’d taken heroin for the first time, four months after his break up with Thor. A few weeks after the break up Loki had been called into the Dean’s office to discuss his current performance, and on the way out he had bumped into a guy named Tony. Tony and Loki became close friends, the first and only real one Loki had made at University. He quickly became fed up with Loki’s depressed state and offered him a pick me up in the form of Weed. Said it’d help him find happiness, or make it worse and allow his mind to follow down the road of paranoia, but what did Loki have to lose? As Tony had put it, “you’re already acting like your life’s over.”

So Loki had taken it, he’d already been kicked out of his Uni, and was now living with Tony. Tony would later introduce him to Deadpool, who at the time was Tony’s supplier. Tony didn’t do drugs anymore, and it’d been a long time since Loki last spoke to him. Tony was now known as Taskmaster, he met Thanos through Deadpool and became one of his hit men; Loki’d recently found out though that Taskmaster was now working for Norman. Clearly Victor wasn’t the only one betraying the king of Lower Marvel.

One day Loki went to Deadpool with an issue, the Weed wasn’t helping anymore, he needed something more to help drown the pain. Deadpool said he’d either have to start taking Weed more often, or would have to move onto something stronger. When Loki was a teen he was told Weed was the gateway to harder drugs, and he found himself being a prime example of that truth. Deadpool said he’d recently been given a ton of skag to shift. “I can cook you up a hit if you think you can take it?” Loki had sat next to Deadpool as he pulled out a mug of water, a half melted candle and a spoon, which Deadpool quickly ran under the tap and dried with his shirt. He set them all on the table before grabbing a box revealing a plastic bag containing white powder and a hypodermic syringe. Loki watches entranced as Deadpool tips some powder onto the spoon, sucks up some water from the mug with the syringe and squirts the contents onto the spoon, which he then heats up over the candle. Using the needle of the syringe he stirs the mixture until the powder has dissolved. Once it had he then sucks the liquid into the syringe barrel. “Want me to do it for you?” Deadpool asks. Loki stares at the syringe and wonders if this was a good idea, he wouldn’t have admitted it but he was scared. He didn’t know anything about drugs at the time, and had no idea what heroin would do to him, good or bad. Loki’d heard about addiction though, and he didn’t want that for himself. When the thought of Thor past through his mind though, there was no doubt, he wanted to do this. Loki’d liked to think, if he could go back to this moment he’d say no, but he’s not sure he would.

Deadpool had tied a belt around Loki’s arm, something Loki didn’t really do anymore, only if he was really struggling to find a vein. He then began to tap on Loki’s arm, and with every tap fear rose further in his stomach. Loki’s just thinking of telling Deadpool to stop, that he’s changed his mind, as Deadpool shouts, “ah!” He then picks up the needle and stabs it into Loki's arm, who gives a sharp intake of breath and looked at Deadpool with a painful expression. He had simply smiled back, sucked some blood into the syringe before pushing the whole thing in.

The rush doesn’t come straight away, but it’s sudden and hits Loki hard; and any fear he had simply disappears. A mixture of ‘oh’s and ‘yes’s leave Loki’s mouth as if he were reaching orgasm, only it’s better than that, so much better. It’s an overwhelming feeling of euphoria, Loki can’t think of anything better than this moment.

A feeling of water filling his cheeks appears and suddenly Loki’s throwing up into a bowl Deapool’s strategically placed. “Forgot to mention that’ll happen the first few times; deep breaths now.” Loki doesn’t mind, he couldn’t feel better and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand wearing a blissful smile.

Loki hadn’t seen a downside at the time, and didn’t know that later on a gram of heroin would be a prized possession. That getting the next hit would be more important than anything else. Hell, if they happened to be insanely short, and if he could, Loki’d have no qualms killing Victor for a gram if it ever came down to it.


	21. Individuality

Loki lay on the sofa, blankly staring at the TV as he waited for Victor to come home. He was very tired, his eyes were beginning to sting from exhaustion and he had to fight his lids from closing. But he needed to stay awake; he had to wait for Victor to get home. He didn’t want to sleep on his own again.

Victor had been working late, and going out early, he was barely at the flat and Loki saw little of him. It was a big difference to how things used to be, when they could spend weeks just in each other’s presence as Victor waited for a job from Thanos. They wouldn’t even leave the flat, only moving between the three rooms. They’d switch between sleeping, fucking and drifting off into their individual drug haze, before coming back to reality and joining one another again. Loki missed that. Loki missed Victor.

 

Loki blinked his eyes open and groaned in frustration at the sight that greeted him. He must have fallen asleep, as he was now lying in bed back up in his room. Sitting up he rubbed his eyes. Victor must’ve come home and moved him up here, but where was he now? Loki didn’t even bother looking on the other side of the bed, he wouldn’t be there. Eventually he pulled himself out of bed and moved down stairs; Victor wasn’t there either, he’d probably already left hours ago. Harry was there though, sat on the sofa watching TV. Harry was neither his boyfriend nor a friend, but Loki seemed to be seeing more of him than anyone else lately. But then he hadn't left the flat since they moved here.

“Don’t you have to go to school or something ?” Loki asked glaring at Harry’s back as he moved towards the kitchen. He didn’t really feel like eating, but he can’t remember the last time he ate, and from experience that meant it’d been too long.

“I’m seventeen.” Loki didn’t see how that was an answer, he was still in school at seventeen, not that it’d gotten him anywhere. He had a fancy home he hated, a boyfriend that would do anything for him who he never saw, and a drug habit that put Mark Renton to shame.

“Why don’t you go hang out with Pete or Eddie?” Loki offered, coming to sit on the sofa with a bowl of dry cereal. His bones ached, he needed to shoot up, but he wanted to shoot up with Victor, it was much more pleasurable doing it with someone else.

“This is my home iswell and I don’t like sharing it with you either; so stop trying to kick me out.” Harry glared back at him and Loki huffed turning his eyes towards the TV to stare at whatever Harry was watching. “Your boyfriend not wanting to fuck you anymore is hardly my fault.” Loki didn’t give Harry the satisfaction of a response. It’s true Loki and Victor hadn’t had sex since he got back from his mothers, and that was coming up to two weeks ago now. The absence of Victor isn’t something he was going to cry over though; no Loki was stronger than that. It was just making him mad.

Loki didn’t spend long in Harry’s company. He finished eating his cereal, shot up and went back to bed. He was determined to see Victor tonight, which meant sleeping all day.

 

Loki didn’t know what time Victor usually got home, but when he woke back up at ten he wasn’t there. Harry still was, seemingly still sat in the same place Loki had left him. But after a sarky remark Harry said he’d been out to see Eddie most of the day. Loki leaves it until midnight before pushing Harry back upstairs.

It’s another half hour before Victor walks through the door. Other than the blood on his face he doesn't look any different, Loki's not sure why he expected him to. Victor goes straight to the kitchen sink to clean up rather than greeting Loki who stands from the sofa at his appearance. Loki calls his name as he moves closer to his boyfriend. He doesn’t ask who’s blood it is, he doesn’t care as long as it's not Victor's. “What are you still doing up?” Victor finally asks standing up from the sink.

“I was waiting for you to come home. I haven’t seen you in three days.”

“You know I’ve been busy working,” Victor moves to stand in front of Loki, where he's pulled closer by Loki who clings to his blazer. Loki wonders if maybe Norman had brought it for him. He has to admit he thinks it looks better on him than his jackets ever did.

“I know, but I hate not seeing you.” Loki leans up and kisses Victor, but upon trying to heat it up is pushed away.

“I’m tired Loki, and I have to get up again in a few hours.” He leans his forehead against Loki’s, closing his eyes as though he could fall asleep on the spot.

“You don’t have to. You could just stay here with me.”

“Just remember I’m doing this for you, Loki.” Victor’s tone changes as he pushes Loki further away, before turning from him to begin towards the stairs. This was probably for the best. If the conversation had gone any further, Victor would have ended it by hitting Loki. But Loki doesn’t take that hint.

“I hate it here,” Loki tells him, causing Victor to stop and turn back. “This isn't us, we don’t belong somewhere like this,” he complains throwing out his opens to emphasis his point. “We may live in a fancy flat but we’re still scum.”

“Do you think I like doing this, Loki?” Victor argues back with a dangerous look in his eye, but Loki is determined to follow this through. “I’m risking my life, getting very little sleep and going through withdrawal symptoms constantly from the little amount of skag I’m having chance to take. All of this is for you! So you’re not being hurt by Thanos again.”

“I would happily deal with Thanos raping me if it meant I could have the simple pleasure of seeing my boyfriend.” Loki says, narrowing his eyes. He faces Victor with a look of determination which only fades slightly as Victor comes over and forcefully takes a hold of his face to glare at him hatefully.

“Well it’s too late to make that decision now, isn’t it? And don’t be so pathetic, I’m still here. I’m just not going to waste my life continuing how things were when I have the chance to be something better.” Victor’s grip seems to strength which each passing word and Loki begins to wince in his grasp. It’s not the pain that brings tears to his eyes though. Maybe he is just being pathetic, or maybe his emotions have gone over the top, but he feels like Victor’s leaving him behind. So much for being strong, huh?

"You mean wasting your time on me?" Victor doesn't even grace him with a response as he lets go of Loki and rolls his eyes. Loki knows that that's not what he means, and Victor knows he knows that too. “I just don’t want you to be something better,” Loki pleads as Victor begins to move away from him again.

Victor looks at him in confusion. “What?”

"While you're off bettering yourself, I'm going to stay the same. A wallowing in self-pity, sexually abused, drug addict. You'll realise you can do better then me and leave me behind. And I'm nothing without you Victor. The only things that matter to me are drugs and you...I'm not even a porn actor anymore! I have nothing that makes me an individual. So you...you can't leave me!" Loki's sadness turns back to frustration the more he speaks, and Victor's huffed laugh doesn't help.

"Don't be stupid, Loki, I'm not going to leave you." Victor's face softens as he edges closer to Loki. He takes his face in hand and kisses him. "Unfortunately doing better than you isn't an option." The word 'unfortunately' should really piss Loki off, but instead he molds against Victor as he allows him closer and their make out finally takes off. The only compliments Victor can give him are backhanded apparently.

Whatever Loki set out to do had worked though, as Victor fucked Loki on the couch. He didn't leave in the morning either; he stayed with Loki in a haze of sex and heroin. Loki had once said he'd let Victor pull him down. He was beginning to wonder now if it was actually the other way around.


	22. Tragic

So maybe Loki and Victor wouldn't have the life they once had. Some would say that was for the best, but they were finding a way to compromise so that Victor could be there and Loki wouldn't get over emotional, which was the main thing. Victor cares for Loki, but he couldn't deal with that all the time.

 

Not too far away from their new home, the Lower Marvel Police Department were having worse luck. Their old DCI had recently been fired. DCI Sitwell has been a bent cop; some would even go so far as to say he'd only ever joined the force to assist Thanos. It was fair to say LMPD had gotten use to a certain way of doing things. They ignored the blood on members of the public, they lost the paperwork for assault charges and by no means would one of them get involved with Thanos. Arresting anyone in Titan was a big no, no. That all changed though with the arrival of DCI Thor Odinson and his team, whose main objectives were to reform the police department and take Thanos down. Seems they had a sense of morals that Lower lacked. Their cells were now fuller than ever, and questions were being raised. Some cops on the force were open to the change, whereas others, not so much. There were things that could very well have them locked up the same cells. Luckily Thor hadn’t had any of them arrested, yet, but a few had been demoted.

Two such Police Officers in favour of the change were Detective Sergeant Barton and Romanoff. They had both come from the backgrounds that Lower Marvel provides, but instead of following the path originally laid out for them, they’d joined the force at the first opportunity. Natasha had been raised a hit woman for the previous Titan mob boss, and Clint was an orphan who grew up along side his brother robbing to get by. His brother now a lacky of Thanos. They had wanted to make Lower Marvel safer though, so after waiting to be sure Thor was legit, they approached him with their information. They couldn’t do it in the middle of the office; there were still those in the force that couldn’t be trusted, so they held a meeting. Themselves, Thor and his team: Robert, Luke, Hank, Steve and Janet.

They started by stating the obvious, Titan was run by Thanos and those directly under him were Ronan, Gamora and Nebula. There were three main companies connected to Titan; Hammertech, Hydra and Hellfire. Hammertech was an underground gun trade, Hydra: porn makers, and Hellfire a strip club and brothel.

“What names do we have to go on so far? Who can we be keeping an eye on?” Thor asks with his arms crossed staring at the pin board Natasha and Clint were slowly piecing together.

“It wouldn’t be a far out estimate to assume everyone in Lower Marvel was connected to Thanos in one way or another,” Clint states, “either as a fence guy, dealer or hit man. Or working at one of the three H’s.”

“We don’t have a long list of Thanos’ hit men, as Thanos doesn’t like his lackies making things public. Ones we’re aware of though are the aforementioned Ronan, Gamora and Nebula; Deadpool, who’s also a dealer, and Bucky Banes, who you’ll know was previously an officer in the Upper Marvel Police Department.” Natasha lists, pinning photos of the accused to the board as she goes. Thor looks at Steve out the corner of his eye, Bucky’s old partner.

“Names connected to Hammertech are Justin Hammer and Anton Vanko, a serial killer we were trying to catch who’s now disappeared. We’ve yet to get evidence that this is connected to Thanos, though it most likely is.”

“We could list many names for Hellfire as it’s public on the outside. It’s owned by Sebastian Shaw, and his main, none sexual, employees are Janos Quested and Azazel, last name currently unknown. Their main girl is Emma Frost, daughter of Winston Frost who went bankrupt and suddenly gained his money back. Again, no evidence to connect this to Thanos, but likely is. It was rumoured Frost International was working with Titan before it went under. Other girls are Angel Salvadore and Raven Darkholme.”

“Hydra is run by Johann Schmidt and Ophelia Sarkinson. They do everything by the book however, nothing screaming illegal activity. The only one of their actors we have a name on is Loki Laufeyson.” Thor’s blood runs cold as he sees Clint pin up a photo of Loki on the board. The thought of Loki being connected to anything illegal hadn’t even crossed Thor’s mind when he took this job. He didn’t want to be investigating his adopted brother or ex-boyfriend. Their mother wouldn’t be happy to say the least, if it came down to arresting Loki. And porn? Thor had no idea. He knew Loki was a drug addict now, but he thought that was the extent of his descent into Lower Marvel. ‘And you would?’ Thor had questioned Loki’s knowledge of Lower Marvel, clearly he’d been wrong. Loki knew it very well.

Thor goes to ask a follow up question but is beaten by Steve. “We’re sure there’s nothing illegal there? Nothing…rape or child pornography?” Steve looks noticeably uncomfortable as he asks.

Natasha rolls her eyes; he’s going to have to man up if he doesn’t want to be broken down. “Not that we’ve found.” Clint says shaking his head. “We’ve got a box full of DVDs in the evidence lock up. Other than probably paying money out to Titan, there’s nothing to suggest they’re anything other than a porn website and redistribution.”

“Do you have anything else on Loki?” Thor asks unable to help himself. He schools his face to make sure he doesn’t look like he’s asking for anything other than police investigation.

Clint shuffles round his papers before picking up a sheet. “His father’s in prison for sexual abuse. He dropped out of university,” he begins to roll off. “He’s been spotted a bit in Hellfire, has been working with Hydra for a least three years. His boyfriend’s Victor von Doom, who also works for Thanos, doing what is unknown. And he’s our new DCI’s younger adopted brother.” Clint smiles at Thor as he puts down the sheet of paper.

“The question would be then what else do you know about Loki?” Natasha asks with a smirk.

“I didn’t know he had a connection with Thanos,” Thor says scratching the back of his neck. “He doesn’t have a lot to do with our family since he dropped out of Uni and became addicted to heroin. But he was staying round our parents for over two weeks not long ago. He didn’t say why, but mentioned Lower having been complicated. Victor came to pick him up, but he said he was working with Norman Osborn now.”

Natasha and Clint share a look while Robert asks, “the owner of Oscorp?”

“There have been whispers, very quiet whispers; that Norman was starting up his own gang. But like I said, that wasn’t enough for us to go on to even be worth looking into it.” Clint shrugs.

Thor points a finger at Clint and Natasha. “Start looking into it. I don’t care how small the lead, we’ll stop that growing before it has chance to take off.”

“What lead? We have nothing to go off. There’s nothing to suggest these whispers have any hold to them.” Natasha argues with a hand on her hip.

There’s a knock on the door that stops the conversation there. One of the other officers, Rumlow, pops his head round the door. “Sorry to interrupt. We’ve just pulled a kid in for smoking weed. You said you wanted to do all the questioning yourself, sir?” He directs the question to Thor.

“Kid, Officer Rumlow?” Thor asks, not moving from his seat.

“He said his name was Harry Osborn.”

 

Thor couldn’t get out the room quick enough after that, taking Clint and Natasha along with him. Getting the chance to question Noman’s kid was just what they needed right now. Thor didn’t care how small the whispers were, if there was even a hint of another mob gang starting he wanted to put out the fire before it began to spread. The last thing they needed right now, while they were trying to take down Thanos, was a rival mob boss. It wouldn’t look good on Thor either, he could see it in the papers now: ‘New DCI allows mafia to run riot. Instead of taking down one like he promised, he’s created a new one.’ Then again, it wouldn’t look good on him if news spread that his younger brother was affiliated with that life either.

Harry was sat with his arms crossed, wearing a smirk when the trio entered. “DS Barton, DS Romanoff.” He greeted them.

“DCI Odinson,” Thor introduced himself, sitting across from the teen.

“What happened to Sitwell? People realise he was sucking Thanos’ dick?” Harry smiles to himself, but the trio keep a straight face. “Tough crowd,” he mutters.

“You know something about Thanos?” Thor asks, leaning back in his chair.

“Everyone knows Thanos, he’s the king. Now if you want to question me, get to the point and do it fast. I’ve already had my one phone call, someone’s already on their way to pay my fine and get me outta here.” Thor inwardly groans; that was not what they needed. He was going to have to speak to the Department about this, a phone call was not a legal requirement on the police’s side, and Thor didn’t believe the suspect should get one until they’ve been questioned at least. They didn’t have much time, but as an officer you couldn’t ask straight forward questions, you had to dance around the subject to catch the suspect out.

“Where’d you get the weed from, Harry?” Clint asks, taking the reins from Thor as he sits down next to him, and Natasha takes the seat next to Harry who looks noticeably more uncomfortable.

“A friend a’mine, don’t know where he got it though.”

“Your friend got a name?”

“Eddie, don’t know his last name, don’t know where he lives. Lower doesn’t trust each other enough to go giving out their personal information. Can’t risk people giving it to the police in situations like this.” Thor didn’t believe Harry, Lower didn’t have to fear the police before now.

“How about your father? Does he share any personal information with you?” Natasha asks which Thor raises his eyebrows to. Had she even questioned someone before?

“What?” Harry looks genuinely shocked.

“We have reason to believe your father is leading a new mafia gang.” Natasha is being too blunt Thor fears. She’s ruining their chance as she stares holes into Harry as he squirms in his seat.

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. My father’s part of a ‘hiring ex-convicts program’. Ya’know, getting them back into work, but he’s not starting a mob.” Or maybe she’s not.

“What about Victor von Doom?” Thor asks leaning forward in his seat.

“What about him? He’s recently started working for my father.” Although Thor asked the question Harry directs his answer to Natasha. “He and his boyfriend are pretty much my babysitters.”

“Victor von Doom used to work for Thanos, did you know that?” Clint asks, to which Harry shakes his head. “Now he’s working for your father, why do you think that would be? From lacky to businessman? I don’t think so.”

“I don’t think it’s your job, as policemen, to jump to conclusions without facts. Like I said, he’s hiring ex-convicts.” His answer this time goes to Clint who smirks back at him.

“Victor’s never been arrested, he’s not an ex-convict.”

“Well you’d have to ask my father then, or maybe look at your own ability as police officers. You knew he worked for Thanos and never arrested him, after all.”

Clint opens his mouth to fire back, but the four of them snap their heads round as the door opens and again it’s Rumlow. “Kid’s bails been paid, time to let him go.”

“Give us a minute,” Thor says holding his finger up.

“Can’t do that boss, we’ve no grounds to hold him on.”

Harry stands with a smirk at Rumlow’s words. “It’s been fun,” Harry says once he’s at the door, “pleasure meeting you DCI Odinson.”

 

“He doesn’t know anything,” Thor groans once Harry’s left, rubbing his hands over his face. That ended far too quickly, and Thor wonders how long Harry had been in the building between his phone call and Rumlow coming to grab him. When he removes his hands from his face both Clint and Natasha are staring at him. “What?”

“He was clearly lying, sir.” Clint says with a frown. “He knows something.”

 

Harry’s mouth splits into a shit eating grin when he sees his bail standing at the reception. “Take that smile off your face, you idiot. How could you be so stupid as to get arrested?” Loki growls at him. DS Rumlow smirks as he grabs Harry’s confiscated things. Arrested for smoking weed, Loki shakes his head, something that wouldn’t have even been looked at twice when Sitwell was in charge.

“So when did you and Doom adopted a brat?” He asks handing Harry a clipboard to sign.

“Probably about the same time you got put on desk duty. The new DCI hasn’t been kind on you I see.” Loki smirks back but his eyes glare, as do Rumlow’s as a result. Loki sighs and turns to scowled Harry once more when he catches Thor out the corner of his eye. It’s not long before Thor looks back at him and Harry follows his gaze.

“That’s the new DCI, he was there interrogating me.” The more Loki stares the worse the heaviness in his stomach gets. He hadn’t really let his mind linger on it before, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that LMPD’s new leadership wasn’t going to end well for them. He could feel tragedy on the horizon.

Loki looks away and pulls on Harry’s arm. “Let’s get out of here.”


	23. Fuck You

Victor was far from happy once he got home and discovered Harry had been arrested. Harry sat on the sofa while Victor paced in front of him, telling him he was an idiot, that he had to be careful now. Reminded him he’d been told not to touch weed again while Loki sat on the floor cooking up on the coffee table. It all felt very surreal, like Loki and Victor were parents scolding their child. “How was I supposed to know that LMPD had been reformed?” Harry muttered, focusing on his hands twirling his phone around. Victor wasn’t really mad at Harry, Loki knew that, he was mad at the new police team actually doing their job for once. A month ago this was not something they had to worry about.

“What did they ask you?” Victor asked, his voice calmer now.

“They questioned me about my father and about you. Said they thought he was starting a gang. I told them he was just running an ex-convict program. But they said you’d never been arrested, so that wouldn’t add up, why would you be working there? Then I got pulled out. Rumlow kept me in a cell for most of my time there, so they wouldn’t have enough time to question me.” At least the smug smirk was off Harry’s face.

Loki watched with concern as Victor closed his eyes and pinched the brim of his nose with a heavy sigh. “They know something.”

It’s at that point that the door opens, and all three of them turn their heads to see Norman walking in with a furious expression. “Stupid, useless, brat!” Norman scolds, smacking the back of Harry’s head with enough force that Loki winces iswell. “Why won't you listen to me? This is exactly why I told you to stay away from that drug!” Not because he cares about Harry's health, Loki thinks frowning at the pair.

“I’m sorry,” Harry mumbles, but Loki can tell he wants to say something back. Something hurtful. If it were Loki, he’d tell Norman it was his fault he was taking drugs. Harry’s living with Loki and Victor, they're looking out for him now, Norman clearly didn't care about him that much. Anyone could see that, Harry included.

“Sorry isn’t going to cut it when police show up at my door and pull down my operation. Or when the men Thanos have working there pass the news to him, and they'll do so much more than arrest us.” Norman glares at Harry who keeps his head turned downwards. “Get out of my sight.” Norman’s voice is laced with disgust. Harry just stands silently and goes to his room. Both Loki and Victor watch him go. Loki wonders if Norman would have done more if they weren’t here. Was he the same as Laufey and Weiner? How far could his punishment have gone? He decides he doesn’t like Norman Osborn. Even if Harry was a punk-ass brat, it gave Norman no reason to treat him like that. Maybe it was just that he was likely the same age as his father, but Norman reminded Loki so much of Laufey.

 

Norman and Victor discuss strategy as Loki silently seethes. He occasionally sends a hateful glance Norman’s way, which Victor glares back at him for when he notices. Norman was in the wrong. Harry did everything he could, thinking on his feet to brush off his father’s misdeeds. It wasn’t Harry’s fault Norman hadn’t kept his operations as secret as he thought he had. He clearly wasn’t cut out to lead a gang; and there was no way he could take down Thanos like Victor hopes. Loki couldn't understand how Victor didn't see it. Norman rules over a paper card castle, one which Thanos, King of Lower Marvel, will destroy easily. Victor walks Norman to the door when he finally decides to leave. Loki stands a few meters behind and waves politely.

Victor spins round instantly once the door’s closed to glare dangerously at Loki which catches him off guard. He goes to ask what’s wrong but is beaten to it. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Loki doesn’t know what Victor’s talking about, he hasn’t done anything wrong. He assumes it’s to do with the glaring, but as he goes to ask he’s cut off again. “You think glaring at the guy keeping a roof over your pathetic head, who’s keeping you safe, who’s trying to take down Thanos, is a good idea?” Loki manages to resist rolling his eyes. Victor was pissed. It was best not to justify his actions, best not to bait him, and while Loki would normally keep quiet and let Victor ride out the anger, he wouldn’t let Norman’s attitude slide.

“Harry didn’t do anything wrong, Victor. Norman had no right-“

“Fuck you!” Victor interrupts as he moves over to the kitchen. “You have no idea! We have no friends in LMPD anymore. So many of the guys work for Thanos, are loyal to Thanos, anyone of them could tell him you’re associated with Oscorp and he’ll easily find out where you are. Where I am. It’s not just you’re life on the line, Loki!” Loki stays silence now as Victor pulls a knife out of the block and twirls it around in his hand. “All you had to do was keep an eye on Harry. To stop him getting into trouble. Why can’t you do the simplest task?” Loki doesn’t remember Victor telling him that, but doesn’t argue as he stalks closer, eyes trained on Loki. He closes his eyes knowing what's to come. Victor punches Loki, who goes down easy. “I can’t keep pulling a dead weight like you around.” Victor says with a sneer as he sits on Loki’s waist. “We have two enemies now, not just one.” He drags the knife down from Loki’s left shoulder onto his torso as he speaks. Loki grits his teeth against the pain, not wanting to make any noise that might attract Harry. “Thanos, who was only after you to begin with,” another line, “and the police, lead by your brother who's your ex, who is probably the reason my name is known now,” and another. Victor angrily pulls Loki up as far as he’ll go by his shirt, whilst still sat on top of him. “You’re right, by that calculation it’s not Harry’s fault. Any mess we get into is yours.” Victor stands and drags Loki up by his hair. Water wells up in his eye from the pain. Loki doesn’t resist as Victor drags him to their room.

 

Loki curls up into the foetal position once Victor’s finished, but quickly winces from the pain that shoots up his back. Victor always leaves him sore and torn when he’s in one of his moods. But Loki doesn’t mind the bruises or the cuts of different shapes, size and depth littering his body. He’s used to Victor bearing the brunt of his angry out on him. The pain he’s become to welcome, it turns him on in some sick way. The hurt, it's somehow different from the pain his father used to inflict on him. The part Loki hates, is the hate that fills Victor's eyes when he looks at him. He can’t stand it, no matter how much he’s been on the receiving end, that's something he'll never be comfortable with. Loki relaxes instantly as Victor comes back to him and wraps himself around Loki. “We’ll make it up to Harry tomorrow.” Loki smiles to himself and strokes his fingers along Victor’s arm around his waist. Victor wouldn’t say sorry, in their four year relationship he never has. But offering to cheer up Harry was apology enough; he would have loved someone to be there when Laufey hurt him.

“Thank you.” Loki mumbled.


	24. Suicide

Being concerned about Harry didn’t last as long as the scars on Loki’s body. Within the week Loki and Harry were back to throwing snarky comments at each other, while Victor sat between them shooting up. “Shut up,” he groaned as he started pushing the needle into his arm. Victor had started talking recently, saying crazy things like how he was thinking about giving the heroin up. "No respectful mafia leader was an addict." Loki didn't believe that, Scarface was addicted to Coke. Harry had huffed and reminded him he wasn't a mafia leader. "Yet," Victor'd replied. Loki held his tongue, he didn't voice his opinion, that he thought Victor would get no where working under Norman. Instead he let Harry and Victor argue it out, which oddly enough they'd began to do again now. Loki watched them bite insults at each other in the kitchen until his attention is shifted as his phone rings.

It's Sebastian, and Loki frowns down at it. He hadn't spoken to Hellfire since...well he couldn't remember, it was some time before Thanos raped him. Even before then, they rarely contacted him, it was always him going to them. So Loki held the phone in his hand suspiciously rather than picking up the call. Yes, Hellfire were his friends, but they still worked for Thanos, this could be some sort of trap. "You going to pick it up?" Harry asks with an irritated face.

"It's Hellfire," Loki tells Victor instead of answering Harry. Victor holds out his hand wordlessly and Loki hands the phone over to him.

"Hello," Victor answers it without a glance at the phone. Loki gives him a 'what-the-fuck' look which he ignores. Victor stands from the stool he was sitting at and moves to the other side of the room. Loki leaves him to it and turns to what's left on the kitchen island of Victor's skag. He frowns at the emptiness of the spoon and instead starts heating up his own hit, pulling out a fresh needle.

Loki's groaning happily pulling the needle back out of his arm as Victor approaches him. He smiles stupidly at Victor, not noticing his vaguely worried expression. "What did Sebastian want?"

"Emma tried to kill herself," Victor says easily without pause. Loki blinks at him, he's not entirely sure how he feels about that. Victor could have at least waited until Loki was through the other side of his euphoria; sadness or understanding isn't within his range of emotions right now. His friend is hurting, she could have died, but instead of shock or tears, Loki ends up laughing in Victor's face.

 

Loki's still jittery when they get to the hospital. Victor was at the reception desk asking for Emma's room, though technically he wasn't, he was asking for Silver McGee's room. Sebastian had left her here on her own, under an alias; after all, Emma Frost was a missing person. This all leaves Loki feeling out of place standing on his own in the waiting room. He moved his eyes around the room trying to pass the short amount of time. Marvel only had one hospital which was in Upper Marvel and those from Lower rarely came here. They defiantly had the most casualties, but a gun shot could be fixed with floss and a needle. A woman with her child made him roll his eyes as she eyed him suspiciously and held the child closer. He may be a drug addict, and currently high, but he didn't look like it, right? Loki glares back at her until Victor gets the information for Emma's room number.

Emma's awake and on her own when the two of them walk in. She's even paler than usual, her hair doesn't seem as bright and she looks so small in the hospital bed. All in all, she doesn't look like herself, but I guess that's to be expected. It's then that Loki's feelings decide to break through his Heroin induced mind. "You're such a stupid bitch, what the hell were you thinking?" Loki rages coming to the side of her bed, while Victor sits in the seat on the other side of her and rolls his eyes. Emma looks up at him with wide eyes. "You can't kill yourself. Yes your life is shit, but you have to grit your teeth and bare through it to the end. No matter how bad it gets. Anything else is just proving to the world that they broke you."

"That's easy for you to say, Loki. You don't have to face your life." Her eyes narrow, only making Loki's do so further in response. "You can hide behind your drugs and the loveless comfort of your boyfriend." The cough from Victor's direction is ignored as Emma continued to bite at Loki. "I don't have something to keep me standing, this is the first time I have been out of that brothel in years. So get off you high fucking horse."

"Oh fuck off. The drugs have got nothing to do with it. Take those away and I'll crumble, but I'll keep on moving. I'm not weak like you." Loki snarls back. Emma opens her mouth only for Victor to interrupt.

"Why don't you both give it a rest? The pair of you are giving me a headache." Emma's eyes turn away from Loki as he pulls over the seat from behind him to sit down next to her. Both of them quietly seething. "Good. Now Loki, apologise. Emma, thank us for coming."

 

"Why don't you just have sex with him again? Seduce him into leaving you alone." Emma advised, referring to the issue with the LMP. Her train of thought being, 'everything can be fixed through sex'. The idea made Loki shudder.

"It's not a bad plan," Victor mused.

"Victor!" Loki scolded. "I'm not having sex with Thor, ever again."

"Now, then, what's the difference?" Victor shrugged and Emma nodded in response. They quickly shut up as the door opened and in walked one of the doctors wearing red tinted glasses. Loki raised his eyes while Victor scoffed at the sight.

"Miss McGee, it's nice to see you're awake." The doctor smiles at her, and Loki's eyes roll as he catches Emma doing so sweetly back. "I'm Doctor Scott Summers, I was treating you while you were under."

"Well, it looks like I was in good hands," she grins back at him, straightening herself up.

"I'd like to discuss further treatment with you; if you two gentlemen wouldn't mind stepping outside?" Gentlemen, eh? Loki's not sure he's ever been referred to as a gentleman.

 

They leave Emma to it and go outside for a smoke. Just a cigarette, Loki's not an idiot. He wants to do something about Emma's situation. As much as she'd annoyed him, he still loved her. It's not fair that she's stuck in a life she can't get out of, apparently not even through death. But what could he do? There was no way Sebastian would let her go easy, and there's hardly anything he could bargain with.

Victor breathes out a puff of smoke as he watches Loki thinking to himself. "Stop worrying yourself with Emma. We've already got enough shit to deal with."

"But it's not fair," he replies dejectedly.

"Are you going to trade places with her?" Loki slowly shakes his head staring at the floor. "Then leave it, we shouldn't even be here."

Loki raises a questioning eyebrow, "you think Thanos might be here?"

"No, I think a lacky of Thanos might be here. If they know we're close to Emma, they'll know we'll come here." Victor takes the fag out of his mouth and stamps it out. "Watch your back." He turns to go back inside, and Loki wastes no time repeating the action and quickly catching up to his boyfriend.

 

"He was real' cute," Emma tells them as they walk back in. Loki didn't think he was much to look at.

"Don't get any ideas," Victor says sitting back down, "Sebastian won't let anyone take you away."

"Way to be positive around the suicidal woman, Vic'."

"Just being realistic," he says under his breath turning his attention to his phone.

"Maybe I could run away with him, start a new life for myself. The least Sebastian could do is let me be." Emma begins to play with the top of her blanket as she starts thinking of her potential life.  "I'd like to live out of the city, somewhere far away from anyone. I don't have any qualifications to get a job, but that'll be fine if I'm dating a doctor, he can get the money while I go back school." Emma sighed to herself, while Loki nodded eagerly. Victor wishes he wouldn't encourage her.

"Do you think you'd have children?" Loki asked, leaning on his elbows with his head in his hands.

"No," she quickly answers with a frown. "I don't like the thought of having to look after someone else. It sound like another way to trap me." She smiles again when she turns to Loki. "What about you? Not that you could."

Loki thought hard before answering. "Yes." The answer pulls Victor's attention away from his phone. "I like the thought of having a child and giving them the life that I never had. But, with who I am now, with my drug habit and the life we lead, being able to raise a child in a way they deserve, is not a possibility."

"Well maybe you can come join me when my life is perfect. Me and my husband can help you get healthy." Victor frowns as the two of them smile widely, he can't tell if she's joking or not. They must know this is never going to happen.

"I'd really like that." Loki's smile is far too genuine to allow this to go any further.

Victor's quickly leaning closer to Emma and his eyes flash dangerously in way even Loki is taken aback. "I'm warning you Emma. You're losing your common sense to the first guy that shows you any kindness. Remember, there are worse places Titan could drop you into. You've already shown them death is a mercy; running away will not end the way you hope it will."


	25. Bitter End

Victor leaves Emma with a phone when he goes back to see her later in the week, warning her again to just go back to Sebastian. That what she has now, is no where near as bad as what Thanos will have in store for her if he catches her. He knows she won't listen though, and he doesn't blame her. She can see a exit out of her nightmare, and she'll escape while she can. It's a shame that he can't convince her the exit is a lie. When he goes to visit Deadpool for a restock, he mentions it to him, keeping him up to date with the goings on in Titan. Wade says he could just take her somewhere safe, like he already had for himself and Loki. It's a good point, but Victor had already taken away Hydra's money bag, Titan wouldn't be happy if he started housing Hellfire's iswell, and he couldn't afford to bring attention to the two of them. Wade also says he'd liked to shove his dick so far up Emma it comes out the other side, so his word isn't the best to go off.

Victor's not surprised when near her release date Emma stops checking in with him, he's not surprised when Sebastian let's him know Emma's vanished and he's not surprised when two weeks later he hears Thanos has got her back.

 

Hellfire's closed when Victor goes to visit, the first time he's ever seen it closed in the seven years he's been coming here. He manages to gets in through the back door though and has to walk past all the girls' rooms (all of whom have the day off now), deliberately not looking at what was Emma's. When he gets to the front room Sebastian is drinking on his own at the bar. "Where's Azazel and Janos?" Victor asks, going round the other side of the bar to make himself a drink.

"Trying to speak to Thanos, trying to get Emma," Sebastian says sullenly. Victor honestly didn't think he cared that much. He and Emma were certainly close, but Victor figured to was more of a sex thing.

"That's not going to happen," Sebastian shakes his head not looking up at Victor. "Where'd he put her?"

"Same place as Wanda, remember her?" Yes, Victor remembered her, the two of them had had a fling before he had met Loki. Wanda and her brother had later rebelled against Thanos, and they'd been put in what Thanos referred to as The Void. Victor had been through a bit in his time. He'd been raped by his father, buried alive, shot and stabbed, and even he very much feared what was in The Void.

Victor doesn't tell Loki what happened to Emma, and when he asks he tells him that the last he'd heard from her, she has left the hospital with Scott, Hellfire hadn't heard anything from her and wouldn't be looking. He has to grit his teeth when Loki says 'I told you she'd be fine', if only because he hates being proven wrong, especially when he's not. He knows Loki can deal with the dark, but he'd liked Loki to believe there was an escape from their lives. This was something Victor knew Loki didn't currently believe in, and something Victor never would. Yes, he was currently trying to cut down on the skag, but that wasn't the only thing keeping him down. What was the chance of him leading a normal life? He'd killed for the first time when he was sixteen, and had been doing illegal work ever since. Loki could try and start again, he had a college degree after all, he could always go back and finish university. But he wouldn't, at least not while the two of them were together. Something will probably happen to split them apart though, Victor can't see them being together forever. Maybe he'll go to prison, maybe Loki will be taken by Thanos, or maybe one or both of them will be killed. This toxic life, they don't get a happy ending. Victor was just going to have to make the most of the time they had until then.


	26. Snow

When Robert joined Upper Marvel Police Department he did so purely for the intent of keeping his streets safe, and making sure the evil of Lower didn’t spill over into the purity of Upper. He wasn’t like Thor; he didn’t believe Lower could be reformed, he didn’t believe Titan could be defeated, but he at least thought it could be managed. Contained.

He was still working at UMPD when Norman approached him. Robert couldn’t say how the business man discovered his dirty secret, but he threatened to reveal it; his meth addiction. It would destroy his career; his wife would leave him as she had previously threatened to do, and that's something he'd do anything to prevent from happening. That included becoming a mole inside the police department for Goblin.

Robert didn’t want to transfer to the LMPD, but he put his name forward for it anyway, because Norman wanted him to, and if Norman wanted it, what choice did he have? Before moving he’d been told that Lower Marvel changed people, and had previously seen it himself in a past co-worker. Bucky Barnes went to help out LMPD, and never came back. Titan got their claws into him, and the devoted police officer turned into a ruthless assassin almost overnight. Over the past few months working in Lower, Robert had come to understand this change very well. Lower did something to your soul, exposing you to the darker parts of humanity. Now in a way, he preferred working for Norman, the darker half of his double life was simpler. You didn’t have to follow rules, you could make your own moral codes, and there wasn’t any paperwork. The dark was fun, and trying to save the light seemed pointless.

Earlier in the week LMPD had received a tip from an anonymous source giving them the location of a drug den run by Titan. It became the biggest drug bust the department had done since before the place had been brought out by Titan, confiscating thousands of pounds of coke and making five arrests. Robert had kept his mouth shut but smirked in the corner as the department celebrated. The tip had all been Victor's idea; using his inside knowledge of Titan to Goblin's advantage. Once the drugs were in holding came Robert's role in the plan, liberating the drugs and moving it to Goblin for them to sell on. Thor knowing that over half the department were still on Titan's pay grade wouldn't think twice about assuming it'd been take back by Titan. Robert was in Thor's inner circle, he knew that LMPD had no idea there was a Goblin mole amongst them, and so they wouldn't go looking for the stolen merchandise with them.

As much as he was beginning to prefer the darker side of himself, it still didn't sit well with Robert how well the plan had gone. Robert let it wash over him as he was handing over the packages of white powder to Victor back in the latter's apartment. Once upon a time he had more faith in the police departments of Marvel, back when he thought Upper Marvel was clean because of the work of UMPD. Before he found out just how much the underground could and did get away with, before he was aware how much they controlled. Upper was as clean as it was for no other reason than because Lower wanted it that way

Back in Victor's apartment, Norman clasped Robert on the shoulder. "Good work, Sentry,” he said, using a nickname Robert hated. It was another thing about the underground, they all used a nickname. “I’m sure I can leave this in your capable hands, Victor?” Norman addressed von Doom who was inspecting one of the packages and slapping Loki’s hand away when he reached for one himself.

“Not a problem,” Victor answered, now glaring at Loki who pouted back at him.

Robert waited until Norman had left for a business meeting before speaking up again. “How are you going to shift it?” Norman’s departure lead to his son's appearance, as he curiously made his way down the stairs to the kitchen. Robert thought it unfair to have a child amongst all of this, but in the grand scheme of things, Harry was a lot better off than most children in Lower Marvel.

“We could ask Deadpool to sell it on the sly,” Loki suggested, but the look on Victor’s face said that was a terrible idea.

“My friend Eddie sells drug." Harry gave his input without prompting. "On campus, clubs, house parties. We could ask him?”

“This is a little bigger than pills and weed, Harold.” Victor rolled his eyes, and Harry sneered at his full name.

“Eddie’s found a way of getting drugs in under Thanos’ nose. I think he can handle it.” It was strange that they had this conversation so freely around Robert. Were he a loyal cop, he'd be relaying all this information back to the department as soon as he was out of the apartment, or maybe even wearing a wire. In a way it was a little insulting, because they didn't see him as a threat. It wasn't that they trusted him, they just knew he wouldn't do anything to hurt them. Drug use made him vulnerable, and blackmail had him wrapped around Goblin's finger. Now Robert was just another bent cop.

 

Though Victor doesn't mention it to Harry, expertly avoiding stroking the teenager's ego, he does go to investigate his idea. Edward Brock didn't seem like much, not in comparison to Deadpool, but the boy was still young, and after speaking with him Victor thinks he'll be a good asset to Goblin. Norman wasn't happy with his decision, but Victor had lost his will to care. Gradually he'd started seeing things Loki's way, and mentally admits that Norman wasn't capable of the leadership needed to run a mafia gang. He had the resources, there was no doubt about that, but he had neither the charisma or ruthlessness required to succeed at the same level as Titan.

Harry was right when he said Eddie had found a way of getting drugs in without Titan's knowledge, and it turned out he knew more about how the drug trade worked in Marvel than Victor did. Eddie got his supply from the same place Titan did, a group called Symbiote, who had taken quite a strong shine to the boy. Symbiote was a massive organisation, though they weren't more powerful than Titan, Thanos couldn't afford to either take them down or quit business with them. It surprised Victor that he'd never heard of them previously, as they controlled all the drug flow into Marvel.

Eddie was a good find for Goblin, as through him they were able to speak to Symbiote directly and arrange their own deal with them. However, Norman wasn't seeing the bigger picture in getting more involved in the drug trade, and turned the idea down. Victor, knowing that money was at the centre of power, and drugs brought in a lot of money, sets up a meeting with the Symbiote anyway, dragging Eddie along with him. Symbiote eat Eddie up, barely paying attention to Victor as he tries to negotiate a deal with them; but this works in his favour and by the time the pair of them are walking out, they have a drug deal between the two of them to rival that of Titan's.

Victor starts to think again on the best way to shift the massive amount of merchandise once he's back at the apartment. Eddie wouldn't be able to shift half of the supply on his own, and this early into the game, bringing someone in from the outside would put the whole of Goblin at risk. Reluctantly Victor let himself ponder over the idea of using Deadpool, as Loki had previously suggested. It was a case of what they needed Deadpool for more. A trusted ally inside Titan to keep them in the loop of goings on, or to take the drug dealing experience out of Titan and use it to Goblin's advantage instead.

It's another thing Victor doesn't mention as he exits the apartment to speak to Deadpool. Both Harry and Loki's egos did horrible things to them when Victor took them seriously. Instead, Victor's gracious enough to let them have a line of snow each.


	27. Brotherly Love

"I didn't know you had any real brothers," Harry says, taking a bite out of his toast opposite Loki at the kitchen island. Loki's mother had recently phoned him to say that one of his elder brothers had come by her house looking for him. It was the first time in the past twelve years that he'd heard from either Helbindi or Byleistr (his mother wasn't sure which one it was), and truth be told he never expected to see either of them again. That thought didn't keep Loki up at night, he felt no love for either of them.

"I have four brothers in total, two biological and two adopted," Loki says, "though I've only had sex with three of them." Harry pauses bringing his toast back to his mouth and stares at Loki questionably.

"Ya'know, most people don’t add that on. In fact, most people haven't had sex with any of their brothers, or any family member for that matter."

"I'm aware of that, Harold; but in this household, you're the odd one out." The statement leaves Harry visibly uncomfortable, which makes Loki smirk.

"Did he leave your mother with anyway for you to contact him?" Victor asks as he re-joins the conversation from where he'd previously left to get dressed.

"A phone number," Loki answers simply, looking at the number his mother had text over to him. Why would his brothers want to get in contact with him now? Loki assumed it must have something to do with their father. Not only was it the only thing they had in common, Loki also refused to believe it was a coincidence that they'd gotten in contact with him now, when he'd not so long ago spoken to his father for the first time iswell. It could be some sort of trap. His father did say that if he didn't get Thanos to visit him in prison he'd find a way to hurt him. His brothers had never hurt him back when they were children, but people change.

 

Loki, after much consideration, decides to meet up with his brother; Helbindi it turns out to be. They decide to meet in a public park in Upper Marvel, Loki knowing he isn't exactly safe in Lower right now and not trusting his brother to meet in private. Helbindi's quick to spot when Loki walks into the park, only five minutes late for their arranged time. His brother's barely changed since he last saw him at aged nineteen, despite now being thirty-one. Is it wrong to think he looks mildly attractive?

"Hel'," Loki greets as he sits down next to his brother on the bench he'd already made himself comfortable on. It gives Loki a weird feeling using the nickname again, not quite nostalgia just painfully aware of how long it'd been since it'd left his tongue.

"It's good to see you again, Loki; though this isn't how I expected you to be." He says gesturing to Loki as a whole, in what he's sure is disappointment. "You don't look healthy." Loki huffs, he has no idea. "How's your life been?"

Where to begin? Loki considers lying, but what good would it do. "I got adopted, started dating my step-brother, went to Uni to study Psychology, broke up with my step-brother, dropped out of Uni, became addicted to heroin, got into an arguably toxic relationship with my current boyfriend, became a pornstar, got raped by a mob boss multiple times, and now I'm wasting away while I wait for my boyfriend to kill my rapist." Helbindi just stares at him with something akin to concern while Loki grins back. "So clearly, I turned my life around," he mutters sarcastically, "how about you?"

"I went to work with our Uncle Nal, working at the family company, Jotunhiem." Loki furrow his eyes, he didn't even know his family owned their own company. He notices now the sharp suit Helbindi's wearing, and how grubby he looks in comparison."Byleistr joined us a few years after Laufey was put away, said he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with his life now."

Loki laughed sadly, "that sounds familiar." Loki had tried to bounce back with Uni and Thor, but what happened to them is always going to be in the back of his mind. Though looking at the two of them side by side Loki knew he couldn't use Laufey as an excuse, as Helbindi seems to have bounced back just fine.

"You could come join us too." Helbindi offers but Loki shakes his head without even thinking about it. They were nothing but strangers to him; Victor was his family now, Harry too to an extent. "Well, the invitation's there, if ever you want to get away from the toxic relationship and rapists." It's meant in good humour but Loki doesn't laugh.

They fall to silence then, staring at each other for a long moment. It was weird for the pair of them to see each other after so long. Once upon a time they'd had sex with one another, back when they didn't know it was wrong. Now that they understood and had grown up, to look at one another again with those memories in mind left them feeling little more than disgusted. Still, Loki as fucked up as he was, stared at his older brother and took in just how attractive he'd become. All black hair, dark blue eyes and lean muscle. The fact that it was wrong to look at his brother the way he did only turned him on more.

Loki coughed and turned away, trying to extinguish the heat rising in his stomach. "I'm sure you didn't search me out just for a catch up?"

"No," Helbindi said in a tone that made Loki regret asking, "I spoke to our father." Loki's stomach dropped but he didn't say anything. Maybe this was a trap after all, maybe their father had sent Helbindi to hurt him after Malekith had failed to do so. Loki couldn't decide if the truth was actually worse. "He's being released soon. Gets out in a few weeks." Of course, he knew this day would come, for as disgusting and unforgivable as his father's crimes were, the legal system meant he wouldn't spend the rest of his life behind bars. "I thought it best to let you know ahead of time. He probably won't come see me and Byle, but chances are he'll come pay you a visit." After the last visit he'd had with his father, Loki thought those chances were pretty high too.

Loki hates Helbindi in that moment, for how they'd suffered through the same thing but it looked like Loki was the only one still crawling out of the mess left behind. It could be a front, the mention of a company Loki wasn't aware of, the tailor-made suit and lack of psychical evidence to mental damage. But Loki doubted it was a lie. Helbindi certainly didn't look like he'd been raped in the past twelve years or developed a drug habit. They'd never had any brotherly love growing up, only a shared pain and sick comfort sex. Still, why hadn't Helbindi and Byleistr come to check he was okay, pull him out of his descent? Why did it have to be Loki that their father was still interested in hurting?

Maybe it was jealously that had Loki leaning up to kiss Helbindi, maybe he wanted to corrupt his older brother; wanted to drag him back down into the darkness where they'd been moulded and hope Helbindi came back up as twisted as he had. It surprised Loki though when his brother kissed back, maybe he wasn't as balanced as Loki thought. Loki told Helbindi how much he'd missed him, pressed into his side and raked his fingers throw his hair. When he pulled back he bit his brother's lip and put on his most sultry voice as he told Helbindi to take them somewhere private. Loki would be the snake in the tree leading his brother from salvation.

Loki clings to his brother as Helbindi leads them back to his expensive car, which the mere sight of has Loki brimming with anger. While Helbindi drives them to a secluded spot on the outskirts of Marvel, Loki leans over in his seat to gently suck his cock, avoiding the risk of his brother's conscience coming out and changing his mind. As soon as they're parked up Loki's in Helbindi's lap, prepping himself quickly before sinking down on his brother's cock.

It's nothing like when they were kids. Loki's experienced now, after having sex with so many men since then he knows how to make Helbindi lusting after him for weeks to come, and he doesn't want his brother forgetting this anytime soon. Doesn't want his brother to forget how sick they are. Loki knows it's his bitterness fuelling him, knows how cruel this is to Helbindi; but he didn't force his brother to do anything. He wasn't like their father.

Loki pants in exaggerated ecstasy into the crook of Helbindi's neck and knows it has the desired effect as he feels Helbindi's fingers digging into his hips while he trusts up. The car, while as nice as it is, is too small for Loki to ride Helbindi with too much enthusiasm, so he utilities the use of his hips, every roll bringing out a deep moan in his brother. Loki begins to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, not that Helbindi seems to mind. He never thought he'd be in this position again, certainly not as the one to instigate it. Loki couldn't say how long they'd been going at it when the grip on his hips becomes painful as Helbindi comes deep inside him.

 

Loki continues the act even when it's over, tracing his fingers up and down Helbindi's thigh as he drives Loki home. His brother doesn't complain, but he also barely reacts. Loki hopes he's too busy mulling the situation over in his head, wondering why he put his dick back in his younger brother. Loki hopes he feels ashamed. They share a quick goodbye, Loki placing a kiss to the corner of Helbindi's mouth.

As Loki makes his way back up to the penthouse, he wonders when or if he'll see if brother again. He doesn't feel any better after his unique way of fucking with Helbindi, and doesn't know whether or not he'd be happy to see him again. There's no way now they'd be able to form a normal sibling relationship, Loki's single-handedly destroyed any hope of that without really thinking it over. When he gets in the flat he ignores Victor and Harry sitting on a couch each around the coffee table and makes a beeline to the table to cook himself up a hit. Heroin would wash away all the emotions Loki doesn't want to face.

Victor gives him the decency not to ask until after Loki's injected himself and made his way through to the other side of his euphoria. "How did it go?"

"Bad," Loki says honestly, "I had sex with him." Loki shrugs and laughs to himself. He has no reason to lie to Victor. With everything they are, after everything they've been through, Victor has no room to judge him.

"Why?" Victor asks, not that Loki's surprised by the question. Though there's no anger in his voice at Loki's infidelity, no disgust at it being with his brother, just genuine curiosity.

"I wanted to hurt him," Loki says calmly, "he's successful, attractive, healthy, safe. I want that, I tried to have that, so why does he get that and not me?" Loki turns questioning eyes to Victor sat behind him, who doesn't have an answer to give him.

Harry has an answer though, one so simple. "You're so fucked up, Loki."


	28. Best Friends

Getting a job at the Daily Bugle was supposed to be an easy way of getting a bit of extra cash. Peter Parker wasn't looking for trouble, but it was just his luck to stumble upon it. Mr Jameson had asked him to take some pictures of a warehouse in Lower Marvel where he believed drug transactions went down, hoping to spot one in action and get a juicy snap for the front page. Peter had gone along nonchalantly expecting to find nothing. It wasn't the first time Jameson had asked him to do something like this, and every other time he'd sat waiting for something to happen only for nothing to come along.

This time was different evidently and Peter sat up in his spot on the roof opposite as a car rolled up between the two buildings. He didn't have to wait long for a second, his camera ready to go in hand. While Peter had been to Lower Marvel plenty of times with Harry, he'd never actually seen a deal between the underworld take place before and so he wasn't too sure what was going on, only that Jameson would be happy with the scene presenting itself to him.

It boggled him why Jameson wanted pictures like this so badly. Peter didn't know Lower Marvel that well, but had heard stories, everyone had. People who go sniffing around didn't last for long. So why was Peter surprised when he got burnt? He'd gotten so used to taking pictures of nothing on these tasks, that Peter had forgotten all about changing his camera into stealth mode. The moment his flash went off, three of the men were on their way up to him.

Peter had barely made it down the fire escape before the trio caught him, dragging him back up to the roof and shoving him against the edge. "I'm sorry, sorry! I'm really, really sorry," Peter mumbles quickly in a panic as Guy 1, with spiked up blonde hair, holds him by his right arm and Guy 2, with a series of jagged scars across his face, holds him by his left. Guy 3 stands in front of them tapping his chin, wearing black gloves that are half fingered and half fingerless. "Take my camera, no one will see the pictures. Please let me go. I was just trying to earn a bit of money, I wasn't seriously trying to spoil anyone's operation. I work for the Daily Bugle and my boss is a little bit insane. Always yelling about-" Peter's nonsense ramblings are cut off as Guy 3 holds up a finger.

"Tell me who gave you tip that we are here," Guy 3 demands in a thick French accent.

Peter stutters before answering, "M-Mr Jameson at the Daily Bugle told me to come here, said he'd heard of-" He's cut off again, this time with a punch in the stomach.

"I do not want to keep asking you, mon ami." The guy pulls Peter's hair, the action bringing them face-to-face and causing him to wince in pain. "Now who knew we are making deal here?"

"Please... please I don't know anything, I just take pictures." Pete whimpers as Guy 3 pulls out a knife and holds it to his neck. He doesn't know what to say to make them listen, he doesn't know how he's meant to make it out of this alive; but he does know that doesn't want to die like this. His Uncle Ben had been right, it was reckless of him to wander into Lower Marvel for a few easy bucks, he'd accepted his fate the moment he accept the job. No, Pete thinks, no it can't end like this, he can't be murdered by a couple of low lives just for following the stupid demands of the insane editor in chief of the Daily Bugle. A split second is all it takes for Peter to go from cowering to screaming in anger at his would-be murderers. He doesn't question the sudden burst of energy as he knees Guy 1 in the ribs so hard he loses his grip, and it startles Guy 3 into stumbling back from him only making a small cut on Peter's neck.

Seeing an opening, Peter yanks his arm free from Guy 2 and sprints to the opposite side of the roof and without thinking it through, jumps over the edge. Peter's lucky that he jumped near a fire escape, and grabs one of the railings before he plummets to the ground. The impact of his hand on the rail makes him scream in pain, and he feels a snap, as though something's broke; but he doesn't give himself time to think on it, and drops safely down to the ground, and begins sprinting away from the building.

 

Athletics had never been Peter's strong point, but he runs like...well, like his life depended on it, which it did. He doesn't dare slow himself down by looking back, so he doesn't know if the trio are following him. Not until he's been running for a least thirty minutes, at that point, his body gives out on him, and Peter collapses to the floor in exhaustion. On his hands and knees, Peter breaths in and out heavily, tears stinging his eyes, before he's throwing up. Peter crawls into a nearby alleyway and slumps against a wall, cradling his probably broken hand to his chest whilst trying to get his breath back and lower his heart rate.

What is he supposed to do now? Is he okay to go home? Is this over now that he got away? They have his camera bag, with his ID in it, if they check it they'll know who he is and where to find him. What about his Aunt and Uncle, are they safe? Would the trio even bother looking for him, or would they realise he wasn't a threat? All these questions Peter has no answer to, but someone might. Someone who is his only connection to Lower Marvel. Harry Osborn.

 

Living with Victor and Loki, Harry was rarely shocked by anything these days, being up close and personal with the underworld would do that to you. Still, Peter Parker turning up at the apartment, blood down his shirt, incredibly red faced and heavily breathing was unexpected. Though he was Harry's best friend and he loved him like a brother, Pete was a wimpy kid who had no place visiting Lower Marvel, so it was even more unexpected when he explained what he'd gotten himself tangled up in.

Victor pinched the bridge of his nose, as he did when he got stressed or annoyed, and Harry sat next to Pete at the Kitchen island, holding a wet towel to Pete's neck. The bleeding looked to have long since passed, but Harry figured they couldn't be too careful. Victor had done something to Pete's hand that had the younger boy screaming in agony, and it was now rested against his chest in a make-shift sling. "I'll be perfectly honest," Victor said after a moment of thought, "this isn't any of my concern."

"Victor!" Harry exclaimed. "Pete's my friend, what if they've put a target on him? We can't just leave him to be murdered."

"One, he most definitely has a target on him, Titan don't let even the smallest of things go; two, people get murdered in Marvel all the time, friend or not, what's one more body to the count?" Peter gaped at the older man, while Harry fumed and narrowed his gaze.

"Vicky," Loki pipped up from the sofa where he'd recently shot up and was previously assumed dead to the world, "play nice with our child and his bestie."

"I-" Victor was cut off with a knock at the door, and all four heads swivelled to stare at it. Without hesitation Victor pulled out his gun from his back pocket. "If that's them, I'm killing him myself." He said, pointing the gun at Pete while quietly making his way to the door. The remaining three watched nervously as Victor spied through the peep hole, before emitting a heavy sigh. "Deadpool," he said opening the door.

"Doomy!" Deadpool cheered, walking in like he owned the place. "Loki, nice to see you doing what you do best, aye?" Loki gave him a drunken smile before turning back to the stare at the TV, which wasn't on. "Oh!" Deadpool exclaimed pointing enthusiastically at Peter. "You're the guy who's just been added onto Titan's hit list!"

"They work quick," Peter muttered dejectedly, and Harry squeezed his shoulder in what he thought was a comforting gesture.

"Yeah, Titan have their own app for targets, so word gets around easy." Deadpool shrugged.

"What are up doing here, Wade?" Victor asked, if possible looking even more fed up with today's turn of events.

"I felt like I needed to be here, and look! I did!" He threw a hand at Peter. "You've got a poor damsel in distress."

"Please, Victor," Harry begins to beg again, ignoring Deadpool as best he can. "Me and Pete have been best friends since kindergarten, he's like a brother to me and the closest thing to real family I have; you can't let them take him away from me."

"In my experience," Loki pipes up again, turning around on the sofa to face the four of them, "brothers aren't all they're cracked up to be. In fact, family's designed hurt you."

Pete stands up suddenly, an out of place look of determination on his face. "You're wrong. My Aunt May and Uncle Ben love me unconditionally. Sure, sometimes we have our arguments, me and Harry hate each other from time to time, but we'd do anything for each other. True family looks after one another. Like you two and Harry."

Loki gives an amused huff and yet again turns his back on them, muttering to himself, "Upper Marvel picturesque bullshit." Victor on the other hand, while he does roll his eyes, seems to be mulling it over.

It's a long moment of thought before Victor says, "fine. Deadpool can watch over him."

"What?!" Harry exclaim simultaneously with Deadpool's enthusiastic, "sure!"

"But he's a psycho!" Harry continues.

"And the people you hang around with normally aren't? Your other best friend's a fucking drug dealer," Victor argues.

"This is different. This is Pete! I don't want him getting caught up in this sort of thing."

"He already is," Deadpool says helpfully, and Victor makes a motion of agreement. "Like it or not, Goblin Jr, Titan don't forget. There's no way he can go back to a normal life now."

"What about my Aunt and Uncle? Will they be safe?" Pete asks Victor, who in turn makes eye contact with Harry. Harry understands that look, and subtly shakes his head in answer. Pete doesn't need to know the truth, not right now.

"Titan won't bother touching them, so long as you don't go back. Deadpool's right, you need to say goodbye to your old life if you want the peace of mind that it'll stay alive without you."

Harry hugs Pete before pulling him upstairs, away from Deadpool and Victor who start talking about whatever Deadpool originally came around for. This is the last thing Harry wanted for his best friend, the one part of his life that made him feel normal. But as much as he pretends like he hates his babysitters, Harry's come to trust Victor with his life, so he'd trust him with Pete's too.


	29. Complain

It was nice of Deadpool to take Peter Parker under his wing, unnervingly nice Taskmaster thought. He'd known Deadpool a very long time; they'd grown up on the streets together, somehow gotten into college together, joined Titan together and left for Goblin together. Taskmaster would reluctantly call Deadpool a close friend. During all that time, Deadpool had rarely lifted a finger to help someone else without something in return, so looking after Peter was very out of character.

Taskmaster didn't like Peter Parker. As a reluctant friend he would spend quite a bit of his down time around Deadpool's flat and so seeing the teen had become unavoidable. Task could just not go around the flat, but that would mean giving up something he enjoyed and he wouldn't let Peter win the battle that the younger didn't yet know he was in. Task didn't have many other people he trusted in order to spend time with, only The Hood and Loki, the first of which was impossible to find unless he wanted to be found, and the latter was often too drugged up to uphold a conversation.

So, Taskmaster was left talking to Deadpool about a recent hit, or information he'd picked up on regarding Titan, all the while Peter Parker gave his own stupid opinions of which he had no experience on which to base them. Kid thought that because he'd been roughed up once and had a brief encounter with Gambit, Owen Reece and Pyro, two-bit nobodies, that his opinions on Lower Marvel held any weight.

According to Peter Parker, Taskmaster was a bad person for killing others, but he was only doing his job, what he was paid to do. It was the way Lower worked, you either got with the program or you suffered for it. The teen held the same opinion of Deadpool, but Wade was able to just laugh it off while Taskmaster seethed.

Taskmaster hated the way Deadpool had started looking at Peter Parker, almost like he was the fucking sun. Watching his ass as he moved around the apartment, talking softly to him, doing nice things for him and less subtle, telling Task that he'd like to hit that. It's not that Taskmaster was jealous, but from experience, as the people he was close to started getting close to other people they began to leave him behind. Task had been the one to suggest drugs to Loki, but Task knew his friendship with Loki changed the day he met Victor von Doom.

You weren't given a lot leading this type of life, so it made it all the more important to hold onto what you could. As reluctant as a friend as Deadpool was, he was a rock in Taskmasters otherwise bloody and unstable life.

 

"You don't like me," Peter said to Taskmaster one day, standing in front of him as he sat on the sofa. Deadpool had had to run out to go help Venom with something drug related and had asked Task to watch Pete for him.

"Nope," Task replied, popping his 'p', without looking up at the teen. He was busy checking Titan's hit list, not that he could cash in on them anymore, but it was good to stay informed.

"I haven't done anything to you, I didn't ask to be here." Task groaned as Pete sat down next to him with a pitiful expression. "You don't have a reason to hate me."

"I don't have a reason to like you either, right?" Pete didn't have anything to say in response, only looked down pitifully at his lap. Task tried to go back to ignoring him, but eventually sighed heavily, locked his phone and turned to give Pete his full attention. "Listen, you want to survive here, you're going to have to toughen the fuck up unless you want to be hiding in Wade's flat for the rest of your life. I'm not telling you to become a merc' like us, or start doing illegal shit, just change your outlook on life. Cause life's not sunshine and roses, and it's not black and white either. You're going to have to do bad things to stay alive or to keep people you care about safe. It's just the way Lower works."

"What if it didn't have to?" Task furrows his eyebrows at Pete's quiet question. "If enough people start trying to make a change, change will happen. What about instead of hurting people, you started protecting them?"

Taskmaster laughed and shook his head. "You're not getting it. There aren't any good people in Lower Marvel."

"I'm here. I can do something, I can-"

"You can't even look after yourself," Task interrupts, equally as amused as irritated, "how are you going to help other people?"

"You can teach me how to fight, how to defend myself."

"Can I now?" He could almost get behind the misguided enthusiasm in the kid. Could almost start to see why Deadpool liked him so much. "And what am I getting in return for being a good person?"

"A clear conscience?" Task shakes his head with a smirk. "A chance to hit me?" He turns his head from side to side, mulling it over. "How about the sooner I can survive on my own, the sooner I'm out of your hair? No more bothering you and Wade."

Peter holds his hand out to make the dead, and Task stares at it before shaking it firmly. He's sure he'll have fun along the way.

 

When Deadpool walks back in Taskmaster is teaching Peter Parker how to spar. He'd known Taskmaster a long time, and it'd been a long while since he'd seen the other male do something nice for someone else, a long while since he'd given up all hope on humanity. So, it was nice to see who he considered to be his best friend give fighting tips to the boy he'd come to care for. To not scold him when he did a move wrong, but to be patient and guide him through it again. Taskmaster over the years had become a moody, complaining bastard, with no thought or care to anyone but himself. But he hadn't always been like that, no one in Lower Marvel was born an asshole, it was the product of their environment. Not only was it good to see his friend seemingly his old self, but it also gave Wade hope that Peter wouldn't turn out the same as the rest of them. If they could keep this one kid away from the dark, maybe there was a chance of the rest of them getting away from it too.


	30. Calming Down

Things were beginning to calm down in Lower Marvel now that Thor was getting into the swing of things and gaining further respect from his officers. The noise on the streets was lulling, there was yet to be any fight back from Thanos or gang wars between Titan and Goblin, and their pin board was brimming with knowledge on the underground. They knew they were still miles away from taking down Thanos or fully exposing Norman, but they were closer than they were before.

These quieter times gave Thor time to reflect on the bigger picture. He stood in front of the pin board, with his arms behind his back and thought on their next move. Titan had been running Lower Marvel for a long time and had built up legal walls which were currently too thick for LMPD to break through. Everyone knew Titan was full of illegal activity. Everyone knew about the drug deals, the blackmail, illegal gun trade, murder, and people forced into things unsavoury.

Proving it was the difficult part. It would help if those in LMPD who used to be on Titan's paygrade and probably still were would speak up. Thor knew who they were. Back when Jasper Sitwell was their DCI he had handpicked each member of the Lower STRIKE team, so Thor knew each one of them had to be Titan; Rollins, Mercer, Westfahl, Collins, Anders, Johnson, Murphy and their CO Rumlow. Thor knew the group couldn't be trusted so disbanded and regrouped once he become the new DCI. Rumlow was now primarily their receptionist, Murphy and Rollins we put on permanent street duty, and the rest were kept in STRIKE but now with Barton and Romanoff and lead by Rogers. Thor hoped to break the group's spirits to get them to spill what they knew, but no such luck so far.

As Thor's eyes gazed over the board his focused drifted down to Loki's picture, could he use his brother/ex-boyfriend to get information on Titan and Goblin? He didn't have the same close relationship with Loki like he used to, but maybe he could still get him to talk. If they arrested him they then have 48 hours to charge him for probable cause or let him go, that'd be enough time to interrogate him, and knowing his brother's drug habits he'd be giving them info in exchange for heroin pretty quick. It was an idea but Thor worried if letting him out afterwards would create more issues than solve.

Their focus at the moment was on finding proof of illegal activity in Hellfire and Hydra, finding anything they could charge them with. Anything to show the girls in Hellfire were being held against their will or anything to suggest the films from Hydra depicted rape. Nothing had come up so far. During their investigation though they'd noticed the recent disappearance of Emma Frost from Hellfire. An APB had been put out on her. Either she'd run away and they could question her into giving up some information on Hellfire, or she'd been disposed of, in which case they could look at linking her death to Hellfire or indeed Titan itself.

They were also looking to find out where HammerTech operated from and having heard multiple people reference The Void, were looking into any information they could on that. Nothing on either had come up yet, but there were still various places to search and people to question. All in all, things were slowly beginning to piece together and despite how far they had to go Thor was pleased with their progress so far.

Thor's interrupted from his train of thought by a knock on the door and before he has a chance to answer, Barton and Romanoff enter the room with a folder in Clint's hands. "Hey Boss," Clint greets with a wide smile, "thought you might want to take a look at this." He waves the folder before holding it out for Thor to take, which he does, moving back over to his desk to open it up.

A4 black and white photos are what stare back him, all of them with two familiar figures. "What am I looking at here?" Thor asks looking back up at his DS'.

"That is DS Rumlow leaving his flat with known Titan assassin James Barnes, better known now as The Winter Solider." Natasha tells him with a smug look on her face.

"And this one," Clint begins moving the photos on Thor's desk, "is said assassin kissing said detective goodbye." Thor holds up the image of Barnes holding Rumlow by the front of his shirt and frowns, unsure how to proceed with this. This gave proof of Rumlow's association with Titan, or at least shows he knows the whereabouts of a criminal they've been trying to track down.

"Does Steve know about this yet?" Thor asks, more in order to distract himself from having to make a difficult decision. Forgetting Titan for a moment, it was against police policy to engage with a known criminal.

"We brought these straight to you. You'd said to keep an eye on STRIKE, we got lucky that we were watching Rumlow's flat this morning." Thor hmm'd, not completely listening. Maybe he could offer Rumlow the chance to spill information on Titan in return for keeping his job?

"You're absolutely sure this," he jabs the photos, "is what it looks like?"

"Positive! Also, not necessary info, but I think Rumlow's the bottom in the relationship. If the way Barnes pulled him towards him is anything to go by. " Thor raises an eyebrow at Clint.

"We're good with body language," is Natasha's short answer.

"Okay, I'd like to deal with this straight away. Can you ask Brock to meet me in the interrogation room? Don't tell him what for." Thor starts to gather all the photo's together while the two detectives exit the room. So much for calming down, but at least this was a potential lead. That or he was losing an officer today.

 

Thor leaves it five minutes before heading into the interrogation room, leaving Rumlow enough time to stew. When he walks in Brock simply stares at him with his eyes laced with suspicion as he sits down silently opposite him. He keeps the silence going, the two of them staring at one another until Brock speaks up, “what do you need to speak to me about, Boss? Feel like I’m in a position where you’re going to arrest me,” he says without humour.

“Is there something you feel like you should be arrested for?” Thor asks calmly.

“Everyone in Lower has a reason to be arrested, even if it’s just by association. Even you I’d guess.”

“I’m sure you can tell me more about your theory on that later. For now,” Thor opens up the file, “I’d like you tell be what this is.” He holds the photo’s out for Brock to take, who does after a second of hesitation.

It’s a long moment of Brock looking over each photo individually before he huffs a laugh and throws the photos back down onto the metal table. “Not sure my personal life is any of your business.”

“Normally you'd be right, however it is my business when one of my officers in fraternising with a known criminal, especially one we’re currently trying to locate,” Brock opens his mouth to defend himself but Thor cuts him off, “and no, you can’t convince me that you didn’t know who he was.” Brock clamps his mouth shut and glares past Thor. “How long’s this been going on? Since he started working with Thanos?” Thor asks when Brock doesn’t say anything.

“He was still working in the UMPD when we started sleeping together,” Brock says quietly, which comes as something of a shock to Thor. He’d most likely still have been working along side Bucky at that point, and he’d never had any idea he was seeing someone, especially not someone like Brock. He hoped that Bucky hadn't known at that point Brock association with Thanos.

“You didn’t end the relationship when he started working for Thanos, or think to turn him in? Like your job would suggest you do?” Brock huffs another laugh and rolls his eyes skyward. “Something funny?”

“That you still think Lower Marvel is that simple.” Brock smirks at him. “You gonna fire me then, Boss? Not saying I don’t love desk duty but there are better jobs in Marvel than this.” So letting him keep his job in exchange for the information wasn’t going to work.

“I was thinking I’d make you an offer. I know you have inside information on Titan that would be valuable to us in taking them down. Let me in on what you know and in return I’ll promote you back to C/O of STRIKE.”

“Is this form of bribery legal, Boss?” Thor shrugs but doesn’t answer. It's a long moment before Brock speaks again, presumably mulling over the offer. “You say Winter starting working for Thanos like it was a simple matter of him changing his mind.” Brock stares off into the distance while Thor sits up in his seat with a furrowed brow at the sudden change in conversation. “He was a good cop and got himself taken into The Void for it,” he says in a shaky voice, “came back out with a new man with a new arm.”

“Do you know where The Void is?”

“All I know is it scares the shit outta me, and if I give you anything I’ll end up there too. Winter’ll probably drag me there himself.”

 

Thor decides against letting Rumlow go, hoping it won’t stab him in the back later on. Maybe it was a dumb choice, Clint and Natasha certainly seemed to think so, but Thor still saw a chance of him becoming a good cop again, if he ever was to begin with. Then there was the other part of him, a part that worried what would become of Rumlow if Thor let him go. A worry that only increased when Rumlow came into work the next day, face covered in bruises.


End file.
